Splaticide
by dlahm17
Summary: Jace is a normal squid in the city of Inkopolis. But when he meets another inkling called 'Agent 3' his whole life changes around him. He gets accepted into an academy designed to train squids for battle and he unfolds hidden plans to take over Inkopolis. It's time to save his home.
1. Ink it up

An orange inkling backed up against a wall, three blue ones threatening him with their guns. The orange one held his paintbrush up in a one handed grip, pointing it back at the blues. The blues ignored his weapon and kept walking towards him, spreading their ink on the ground around him.

"And it looks like Ray from the Flying Brushes is in trouble." The announcer, Callie, said excitedly through the TV set that Jace was watching. Callie's cousin, and partner, agreed with her, "I don't think he'll make it out of there to continue the fight."

Jace stared transfixed at the screen; he didn't dare blink as his favorite turf war team: The Flying Brushes, took on the currently reigning champs. He held a Flying Brushes hat between his hands and was wringing it as he watched the dangerous situation. Ray's back was against a wall of his orange ink, but was surrounded by an ocean of blue as the three enemies advanced.

"He's got no backup," Marie said, "As you can see on the map to the side of the screen his teammates are on the other side of the map trying to chase down blue team's final inkling, Jordin. And according to this tournament's rules, there's no reinsertion."

The famous squid sisters then let anybody (which is most of inkopolis right there) who was watching focus back in on the action taking place in the stage.

"Let's see how much fun we can have with this guy before splatting him," one of the blue inklings, presumably the leader, said.

"Maybe we should finish him off quickly and get back to inking their base before they splat Jordin," another inkling said, "There's only so long Jordin can run around with his paintbrush and not get shot."

The blue leader glared at the inkling who said that, lowering his gun to glower at the guy. "We're fine," he hissed, "Jordin's running distraction so we can pick them off when we want. He always does it, he won't get caught by them that easily."

At that moment the inklings heard splattershots being fired and ink being sprayed. An alert showed up at the top of the stage, saying 'Rena splattered Jordin'.

"Oh... crap." The blue inklings looked up at the alert in shock, then back down to Ray just to see that- "WHERE'D HE GO?" The leader yelled at his team; they'd let Ray sink away but there could be only one way he could go, "PAINT THE WALL BOYS!" They opened fire on the orange wall, marking it up with their personal team shade of cyan.

Ray jumped out of the top of the wall before the ink hit it and returned to inkling form in mid-air. His paintbrush cut arcs of orange through the blue inklings, and they dissolved into ink. Ray watched the ink splatter on his face, then wiped it off calmly, stowing his paintbrush away as the alerts blared on the stage's ceiling and cheers were heard from the crowd watching the match.

Jace jumped off his couch and cheered, pumping a fist in the air. The game was all over with none of the Flying Brushes being splattered, Judd declared the Flying Brushes champions and Callie and Marie spent the next ten minutes talking about Ray's risky manuver.

"If he missed, he would've been splattered in less than a second." Marie was reminding Callie. "His move was the riskiest paintbrush skill shot that I've ever seen, if not for the speed he wields it with then he'd be an ink stain on the ground."

"But that just shows how much skill he really has!" Callie yelled, "The SplatterSquidz must really be feeling that right now, they couldn't even splatter one of them!" The SplatterSquids were the now ex-champs.

Jace thought that Callie was right; it's the risky moves that win, not the safe ones. But the risks didn't matter as the Flying Brushes had won, and like any other teen inkling Jace wanted to celebrate.

He grabbed his .52 Gal from in his room, put on his Flying Brushes hat, and ran outside to a lovely day in Inkopolis. The sun was high in the sky, and the Inkopolis tower was in the west with its great zapfish resting on it. The great zapfish had been returned by mysterious ways a month earlier, prompting the inklings to celebrate by holding the tournament that had finished minutes ago. And now there's even more reason for the inklings to cheer as the fan favorite team had won the tournament, and fireworks were being set off over the arena where they had fought. No doubt at this moment the teams were shaking hands and the trophy was handed over to the Flying Brushes.

Jace met up with his friend Celine on his way to the Inkopolis plaza and they instantly started talking about the exciting match. While Jace was a fan of the Flying Brushes, Celine fangirled over their rivals and the ex-champs: SplatterSquidz.

"If not for one lucky move by the Brushes, the Squidz would have won in a fresh second, the Flying Brushes just aren't on their level yet." Celine told Jace while settling her hand on a splattershot holstered on her belt.

"Well it happened, and the Flying Brushes are the champions." Jace countered with a friendly smile, noticing her hands resting on a weapon and waiting for it to come.

SPLAT!

The side of Jace's face was now looking like the green color of brocoli.

"Hey!" he pulled around his .52 and painted Celine's shirt a lovely shade of purple.

The two friends got into a fun splat war in their neighborhood in the suburbs of Inkopolis. And as any squids with ink in their veins, Jace and Celine's neighbors showed up when they heard the shots being fired and started spraying them down. Jace and Celine returned fire on them, but were overwhelmed and forced to retreat. They did so into an adjacent neighborhood, and those residents joined in to help them out. Very soon after, the entire eastern portion of inkopolis was in a friendly free-for-all, with no inkling going unsplattered. Neighbors and friends now painted all colors of the rainbow.

In the pandemonium of the friendly battle, Celine shot Jace in his side and ran down into an alleyway to her left. Jace followed her, eager to even up the ink.

The alleyway ranked of dead fish and octopus, with garbage cans everywhere. Jace walked forward cautiously and quietly, Celine could be hiding anywhere.

Jace was completely silent, but as he passed by a can with graffiti splattered on it, a hand clamped over his mouth.

"Shhhh", Celine whispered, "stay quiet," she giggled and pointed upwards. Jace felt her hand slide off of his face and following where she pointed he saw a pair of legs hang over the roof above them.

"He must've not wanted to get inked by everybody." Celine whispered.

"Then let's dissapoint him."

The duo tiptoed to the end of the alleyway, then painted the whole wall upwards. Both slowly slipped into squid form and started swimming up the wall. They returned to inklings behind some AC units on the roof. Crouched behind the units, they had a clear view of the inkling who apparently didn't want to be hit with ink.

Average height and build for an male teen inkling, but his clothes were much different. Instead of the fresh shoes, shirt, and shorts that most male inklings wear, he wore a sturdy suit of electronic power armor.

"No wonder he doesn't want to be inked," Celine whispered to Jace with a devilish grin, "That armor looks really fancy. Make sure you aim for his face so we don't... mess up the armor."

They pulled out their ink blasters and loaded them up to the max amount of ink.

 _One,_ Jace mouthed to Celine, _two, three,_ "GO!" He yelled.

Jace jumped onto the AC units and blasted at the armored inkling.

Despite being surprised, the inkling reacted faster than anyone Jace had seen before. He rolled out of Jace's range and slid himself behind a container, completely unmarked.

Celine ran around the side of the inkling's container and sprayed the area he should've been, but as Jace watched Celine apparently tripped and fell face first towards the inkling. Celine shrieked in surprise and then was silent, the inkling showed his face above the container and Jace fired at him.

The inkling simply swayed to the side and the ink flew harmlessly by. The inkling then pulled out his own weapon, a yellow and black gun with a slick design.

Jace dove to the side and rolled away, anticipating the inkling to fire, but no shots came his way. Jace looked up and fired back, but before he could pull the trigger a blast of ink flew out of nowhere to land on the right side of his head.

He looked to where the ink flew from to see the inkling standing there, his gun dripping with ink.

"Aw come on." Jace said, turning his body to fire on the inkling again.

The ink spattered against the armor on the inkling's body, but did nothing to the inkling himself. The inkling held out his blaster again in a one handed grip and shot a blast of ink.

The inkling's own yellow blast split Jace's own ink to hit him squarely in the face. Jace flew back with what looked like the contents of a bathroom on his face.

"Crap."

"Don't take this personally."

The inkling spoke to Jace.

Jace wiped the ink off his face and looked up at the inkling, the inkling smiled. "You're good, almost got me a few times."

"Is my friend okay?" Jace said, remembering when Celine fell.

The inkling looked over at the area she fell at, "Oh she's fine. I swept her legs out from under her and then blasted her in the back while she was down. She shouldn't be hurt at all."

As if marking his words, Celine sat up with her face covered in the yellow goo. "Wow, what in the world was that?"

She stood up and wiped the ink off of her face as well, walking over to rejoin Jace.

"What's your name?"

The inkling looked at the Jace and Celine, "I no longer need a name, but I'm called agent 3. And your names are?" His look was now expectant of the other two.

Jace and Celine looked at each other, Celine nodded to Jace. "I'm Celine, and this is Jace, we live over here."

"Oh, you are some of the people that live here?" Agent 3 sounded instantly interested.

Jace nodded, "Yeah, I'm a few neighborhoods down, and she lives right next to me."

Agent 3 motioned for the two inklings to follow him, "You guys have a lot of potential for the turf wars, I want you two to follow me, there's something I want to show you." He started walking towards the edge of the roof and Celine shrugged and followed him. Jace groaned, _what were they getting into_ , and ran to catch up with Celine.


	2. The Valley

"So what is this thing you wanted to show us?" Jace asked Agent 3.

Agent 3 didn't answer but instead jumped off of the roof and sprayed the ground below him, turning into an inkling before hitting the ground and breaking his fall. He continued walking as if nothing had happened, and Jace and Celine jumped after him.

"Hey, I didn't catch your answer." Celine followed up.

"I didn't answer."

He walked all the way to the Inkopolis plaza's entrance to the sewer system, and lifted up the manhole. "Just keep following me." He jumped in.

The manhole cover rattled back into place and Jace stared at it, the sewers were said to be dangerous.

"Are you sure you want to follow him?" Jace asked Celine, "This could be dangerous, I need to know if you're sure."

Celine nodded, "Yeah, we might as well follow him. Who knows, this might be fun." Celine lifted up the manhole cover and slid herself in.

Jace watched as his best friend lowered herself into the unknown, then he readied his mind and lifted up the manhole cover. There was nothing he could see, it was just darkness in the manhole. "Oh man that smells." The smell from the alleyway exuded from the sewers as well, but Jace held his breath and slid his body down.

The sewers were filled with ink that had gone bad, trash, and other junk items; and was set at an angle downwards. The second that Jace's feet touched the floor, he slipped and landed on his back, he then started sliding due to the ink. The sewers instantly turned into a massive, dangerous, and frankly smelly slip-n-slide.

Jace slowly gained speed as he careened down the sewers. Ink went up his shirt and stained his clothes and back. Wind whipped his face, launching trash and garbage into his body to sting him. He approached an area that had broken glass, and went into squid form to avoid it, when he popped back into inkling form he checked his body to make sure he wasn't just turned into a live cheese grater.

The minutes in the sewers seemed to elongate, becoming longer than what they should have bee, but Jace could finally see the end of the tunnel. It started out as a small pinprick of light miles away, but son started to grow into an escape from the stench. Jace braced himself and tumbled out of the sewer, ending up over a grate.

"Ow," he groaned, that wasn't the cleanest of landings.

"Are you all right?" Celine asked, her own clothes spattered with ink as well. Jace nodded and sat himself up, rubbing away ink for the second time today. "I'm fine. Just a little bit bruised, I wasn't ready for the sudden slip-n-slide."

Agent 3 held out a helping hand to Jace. "Don't worry," he told him, "Everyone else was surprised by it too, we really need to clean out those pipes. I think someone might get cut open on the broken glass a mile up. But yeah, when I first went down here I wasn't prepared for it."

"You take others down here?" Jace said while standing up on his own, ignoring the hand, "Why would anyone risk coming down here?"

Agent 3 looked at Jace in some sort of shock, "Have you taken a look around?"

Jace finally did widen his gaze and what he did see made him do a double take. All around him was a valley filled with greenery and statues, beautiful. Junky looking platforms that were inked so much they looked like a painting rose randomly in the valley, seeming to be magically floating on shaky supports. The only mar to the beauty of the valley and the abstractions of the platforms was the dull gray building that was closest to the small group of inklings. In contrast to the brightly colored buildings of Inkopolis, or the inked up platforms, this building was dull and lacking character.

"Wow," Jace said, his voice dripping with more inky sarcasm than someone run over with a splat roller. "Yeah, it's nice, save for the massive gray blob of a building that's literally twenty feet away from us. How many people did you even bring down here, and how many didn't come back?"

The teen agent opened his mouth to say, but was interrupted by a voice to Jace's right. "23 inklings have visited so far, and all have come back daily after I talked to them about what that... what did you call it? Gray blob? Yeah, that was it. They go to that 'Gray Blob' every day."

The voice belonged to an elderly inkling, dressed in rags that looked like old sailor's clothing that were being held together by medals. He held a cane in his right hand, and a captain's hat on his head, finishing the tattered look off with a nice gangly beard.

"Th' name's Cap'n Cuttlefish. And I'm the owner of this fine establishment. What would you two's names be?"

"I'm Celine and he is Jace." Celine told the sailor, "But what is this... place... exactly."

Cuttlefish shot a questioning look to Agent 3, who nodded, Cuttlefish then gestured to their whole surroundings. "This place is called the Octo Valley. It's where the Octolings were confined to after they lost the war with us."

He gestured to the building.

"And this is what we call 'Splat Academy'. It's built on the spot I used to live on, built by myself and a few helpers, but sturdy and reliable. It's my goal to take in inklings who have potential and train them with the help of my three agents. These inklings are planned to be some of the best splatters in Inkopolis." Cuttlefish looked at the two teenage inklings with anticipation.

Celine smiled wanly, "It's nice," she told Cuttlefish, "But don't you think that it's a little bit drab? No inkling would be caught dead in there."

"But that's the beauty of it." Agent 3 said, "Even if Inklings had found the academy, would they want to go in? No. They would think exactly what you would think and leave it alone. Therefore our academy will remain a secret."

"But why keep it secret?" Jace asked.

"This is an academy only for those who have potential. We can't have every squid in Inkopolis run down here to try and apply or practice, think of how annoying that would be for us who actually have a chance to become legends. Or those teaching the ones who have a chance to become legends. No, it's better that it remains secret.

Cuttlefish continued after Agent 3, "Agent 3 over there has been looking for recruits in the turf wars these last few weeks. He's found around 23 inklings, not counting yourselves, who have potential. I'm going to assume that since he brought you two here, you are potential recruits in the academy?"

Agent 3 shrugged, "They're decent enough. There's some potential there, but I didn't get enough chance to determine it; this was mostly a gut feeling."

"The last time he had a gut feeling was when Agent 1 snuck some hot sauce into his food." Cuttlefish told Celine with a chuckle.

"HEY! I thought she said that she wouldn't tell anybody." Agent 3 complained.

"Oops."

Cuttlefish settled down and got back to business. "Alright." He addressed the two potential Inklings again. "I assume that since you are inklings, you're fans of the turf wars?"

Jace grinned, "Oh yeah, that game today was awesome. Ray's moves were phenomenal."

Celine's foot dug into Jace's shoe.

"We can train you to fight at a higher level than him."

Jace's jaw dropped, "No offense, but I doubt that."

Agent 3 nodded, "Ray's been practicing and studying here since we set up the academy, he was the first inkling I went to for a recruit. Why do you think that his team was the underdogs this tournament and hadn't been heard of at all before? They only recently gotten better."

If possible, Jace's jaw dropped even farther, exposing all of his pointed teeth. "Ugggghhh. If that's the case, then I'm in! Sign me up!"

Celine looked over at Jace, excitement clear in both of their faces. Neither of them expected that ambushing an inkling who didn't want to get sprayed would lead to all of this. She unholstered her splattershot and spun it deftly on her fingers, "Since Jace is in, I've got to be better than him. So I'm in, he can't have all of the fun." She smiled and mimed shooting Jace in the head with her gun.

"Excellent!" Cuttlefish said, "You can come back here tomorrow for orientation. For now you might want to follow Agent 3 back to the surface of Inkopolis. See you tomorrow, recruits."

Agent 3 waved for them to follow him, but Jace couldn't believe that there was a way back up from the pipe. It was much to slippery for anybody to go up, that ride was much to tough. Nevertheless Agent 3 walked to the pipe and stepped in, turning into a squid in the ink at the bottom of the pipe, "Let's go." he blurbled.

Once they were back on the surface of Inkopolis plaza, Agent 3 told them the rest of the information they would need.

"Arrive at ten O'clock, one of the other two agents will show you around while I am teaching and get you situated. See you tomorrow."

Agent 3 flashed them a smile, then slid back down a pipe. Jace and Celine looked at each other, still messy, and silently conveyed their excitement because they were unable to talk for a moment. Then Celine was able to find her voice.

"Well this has been an exciting day."

And as the sun started to set, they walked back to their neighborhood, eager to get to sleep so the next day would come quicker."


	3. First day

The sun was barely rising, yet Jace was wide awake and ready for his first day at the academy. Normally when Jace left his house, it was much later in the day. Inklings do not wake up early as some sort of an unspoken rule, and there was no noise coming from anywhere of Inkopolis. Jace and Celine made plans the day before to meet at his house before walking to the academy together, and Jace was impatiently waiting for the doorbell.

Ding.

She was here.

Jace grabbed his .52 Gal and slowly opened the door, "Ready?" he asked her. She nodded and Jace snuck through. Careful to not wake up his neighbors with loud noises, there was a crab who was rather angry at Jace recently for him accidently inking up his car.

"I wonder what it's like, studying at the academy." Celine asked as they walked on the road to the pipe.

"No clue, but I bet that it's amazing, Ray studies there. Maybe I'll be able to meet him."

Celine bumped Jace, "It'd be more impressive if it wasn't him, he's still an unproven rookie. There were more than a few lucky moments for them in the tournament, and most teams underestimated them."

"Are we really doing this argument again?"

"Yep. Or you could hop in the pipe and we could save my winning argument for another day." They had arrived. Jace picked up the cover and slid himself in. Before hitting the slanted floor, he turned into a squid and swam the whole way down, not taking any chances with the junk surrounding him.

When he reached the ground, it was just as graceful as the first time. He almost hit the grate in squid form and fall through, but was able to turn into an inkling the second before he landed. The ground rushed up at him and he fell face first, sliding for a foot on his stomach.

"Are you kidding me?" he murmured, "They need to get a better way to get down here."

"JACE! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Jace turned himself over and looked back up the pipe. Celine was careening towards him in inkling form. "oh crap."

He slid backwards another two meters on his back when Celine slammed into his chest and threw him into reverse.

"Oh my god! Are you okay Jace?"

"I'm not dead yet if that's what you were asking."

"Can I do anything to help?"

"Maybe you could get off of my chest. That might help my chances for surviving this, if you would stop sitting on me."

Celine had unintentionally been sitting on Jace since she ran him over with her butt. Jace was thankful that she wasn't wearing a skirt, but instead her shorts. She got up rather quickly as she realized the same thing, her cheeks somewhat colored.

"Sorry." She said sheepishly.

"S'all right," Jace managed out, massaging the part of his head that hit the ground when she ran him over. He sat up and looked at his hand, no blood, thank god.

"Ah, you're here." The two most recognizable voices of the two most recognizable suids in Inkopolis said. Celine gasped and stared past Jace's head to the origination of the voices. He turned and saw the most popular squids, the Squid Sisters, walking towards them. "I assume you're Jace and Celine," Callie said to them.

"Wha- What? What?! You're Callie and Marie, the Squid Sisters. What in the world are you doing here? And how do you know our names?" Celine stuttered out.

The Squid Sisters smiled coyly.

"Agent 1, at your service," Callie said. "And I'm Agent 2," Marie followed up, "we're your new teachers."

Jace had to concentrate on continuing to breath, "You're the other two agents?"

"I think we just established that." Marie told him. She rolled her eyes like this was a regular occurance. "Callie, you need to give them the tour, I'm needed in room seven for the Advanced Movement Classes. I'll see you at lunch."

Callie nodded, "I warmed up in room seven today, platform eighteen in there is a little bit shaky today. If you're using the platforms, then that one needs to be secured before you use it."

"We're using the walls and pits today, not platforms."

"Ah! Have fun!"

"Okay."

Marie walked off, leaving Callie alone with Jace and Celine.

"So!" Callie addressed, "Jace and Celine, I'm going to show you around. Then we can give you a schedule of your classes after a little skill assessment. Let's get started!" Callie's excitement seemed to be gaining steam, like a rock rolling down a hill it was gaining speed.

Callie offered a hand to Jace and he took it. Callie may have been petite, but behind her pretty body was apparently muscle. She yanked Jace to his feet like he weighed nothing.

Celine got to her feet on her own, and Callie stared at the two of them quizzically. "So you're both around, what, sixteen?"

Celine shook her head, "I'm seventeen, but Jace here is nineteen. We met around four years ago in a friendly turf war, I shot him in the back of his head. After the match he congratulated me on the good shot and asked if I wanted to go another round. I won. Since then he's been constantly trying to get even."

Callie smiled sweetly, "Cool, both Marie and I, despite being cousins, are twenty. Pretty fresh, huh." She started walking, or more accurately bounding, towards the building. "Let's get started with the tour!"

The Splat Academy was much bigger than it looked like from the outside. There was a tiled entrance hall with three hallways being the only ways to get to the classrooms. So, as Callie told them, the entrance hall was the place most squids would hang out at between classes. The three hallways connected to classrooms that all dealt with a subject specific to the hall. There was Movement Hall, Strategic Planning Hall, and Weaponry Hall. Weaponry was in the middle, with Strategy on the left, and Movement on the right.

The classrooms were enormous, usually going as high up as the roof, there was never more than three classrooms to one side of a hall, and the halls extended three quarters of the full hundred foot length of the building.

Callie showed them examples of each classroom type.

In the Weapons classrooms there were racks upon racks of paintbrushes, rollers, and miscellaneous guns. There was also a shooting range for the guns, and an arena for the rollers and brushes. The Strategy classrooms had hundreds of boards, each with a scale battlefield of turf war arenas on it, complete with figures of inklings. And the Movement classrooms were a freerunner's paradise. Hundreds of walls, bars, platforms, and other obstacles were all over the rooms, making it into infinite combinations for movement. Callie stopped by classroom seven, and inside they saw Marie make ten squids go through an obstacle course on the walls. Marie waved to Callie as they watched.

Behind the walls were a lunch room and the offices.

"Make sure you're on guard when eating lunch," Callie told Jace, "Easily twice a week a food fight will randomly break out. A free for all with flying sandwiches."

They walked into the offices and the first thing Jace and Celine both saw was an Octarian in a snowglobe.

"Who the hell is that?" Celine asked.

"DJ Octavio." Callie said, "he was the Octarian a month ago who stole the great zapfish. Agent 3 was called in to get it back and defeat Octavio in his first mission."

"Awww, this guy doesn't look too bad. He's kind of cute." Celine said, tapping on the glass. Apparently she didn't see the death glare Octavio was giving her.

"Well that's the tour! Now on to your skill assessments!" The excited Squid Sister exclaimed.

"Follow me!"

She led them to an empty weapons classroom, "You brought you own weapons, so let's see how you work with them."

Callie had Jace and Celine fire on different shaped targets from different distances. They shot while kneeling, standing, under cover, running, and jumping. Callie had a clipboard in her arms and made careful notes on it as they fired. Jace felt pretty good about how he did, he was decent with his gun.

The next assessment was movement. Callie had to do a basic obstacle course which culminated into them jumping from a platform onto a target in their squid forms. Jace fell halfway and looked at Callie, who marked something down on her clipboard as he did. Jace felt his cheeks glow a bit, and he jumped right back into the course to finish it strong.

The final test was of strategy, callie showed them a board which had a scale model of the skatepark on it. She placed down three blue squids and four orange suids, each with different weapons.

"What could blue team do from here to win?" she asked.

Celine went first. She detailed out a plan that a charger covers the roller while the roller flanks and a splattershot covers the charger's blind side. Callie nodded and marked down something on the board. Jace thought her plan was reasonable, but not the best. The orange team was to well under cover to be in danger of the charger, and the roller had a long stretch of land to cover before it hits the orange team's cover points.

"This fight doesn't depend on what the blue team does, but the orange team. I would to an ambush point with the charger keeping an eye on orange team. Try to force them to make a move to draw us out, then punish them. Our charger and splattershot will do enough damage to force them back, and that's when the roller would be able to try an assault.

Callie smiled thoughtfully, "That's a plan that I have never heard anybody think of. Most design an assault, but you set up a trap. I think that that's one of the better plans I've heard."

She led them back to the offices and handed them schedules, Jace's read.

8:00-10:00 Beginner Battle Parkour w/ Agent 2

10:01-10:15 Break

10:20- 12:00 Firing range w/ Agent 3

12:01-12:40 Lunch

12:45-2:00 Maps and Strategy w/ Agent 1

2:01-2:15 Break

2:20-3:00 Team Battles/ debriefing

3:01 Day is Over.

"When you advance and get better, your classes will change," Callie told Jace and Celine, "we'll notify you when that happens. Now," She clasped her hands together, "it's lunch time."

A/N: I am now on a schedule for writing chapters for my stories, Splaticide will be uploaded every thursday. I would love to see what you think of this story in the comments, anything that I could do better on would be more than gladly appreciated. And as always, Have A Great Day.


	4. Lunch

Jace and Celine followed Callie into the cafeteria and saw that everyone else was in there. The cafeteria was packed, no room at any of the tables, everyone already in their certain cliques. Callie showed them where you can pick up food and they took their seat in a corner, munching on peanut butter sandwiches.

The table in front of them featured a group of squids who were exchanging modified parts to their weapons. As one tried to hand a customized bomb over to another inkling, it blew up in their face and splattered all of them in a shade of vermillion. They laughed and teased the squid that tried to handle the blown up bomb, wiping ink off of themselves and throwing it onto the inkling. Even that inkling got into the laughter, the merriment spreading. Jace smiled as he watched.

"Those guys are very weapon focused." Callie told Celine, "They mostly believe that a weapon makes a squid. You can normally find them trying to modify their weapons, or testing out their newly modified weapons at the firing ranges. Then over to the right hand table, we have our best turf war team. Led by Ray who is a member of the Flying Brushes. Those guys seem to win every time someone decides that they want to play them."

Jace turned his head to look at Callie, "Turf war team?" He asked thoughtfully, "I don't remember seeing any rooms for turf wars. Did I miss them?"

"Oh," Callie said, "I forgot to tell you. If you look at your schedules you'll see a portion of the day is dedicated to 'Team Battles and Debriefing'. In this time slot we will often review what we learned that day, but every Wednesday we head outside to the platforms. We clean off the ink on the platforms and then divide into teams and splat it out. That's why the outside platforms are so inked up, we use them every week to practice a turf battle. The teams are normally already set up beforehand, and often consist of friends who have been splatting with each other for a while. We had five teams of four and one team of three. Where the six teams would battle every week, but now you two joined and we have an odd number." Callie considered the two new squids thoughtfully, "I don't know what Cuttlefish will have you guys do. Maybe sit out."

Jace's spirits dropped, he was hoping for some real battle in this school, not just waiting as he watched other squids duke it out. Now he'd have to wait until two more squids joined so he could team up with them. "Okay," he said, "So what if we join one of the teams?"

"Then I would think that you would battle, but the team would have to give up one of their players. I doubt that would happen as most of these teams are very close and would not like a new squid wanting a spot on their team. If anything, you'd need to prove yourself before getting into a team."

Celine swallowed her sandwich. "What if we made a team of two? It's been done before in turf wars."

"Without much effect, those teams never went far against the teams of four. They always get flanked and destroyed, or if not they are pinned down the whole game and the other teams will just ink up the whole area and let the time run out." Jace told her, "Nah, I am not going to play a team of four as a team of two."

Callie shut her mouth, she was about to talk about some sort of team of two that did well but Celine interrupted her.

"So you'd just let me be a team of one then?"

"No, get yourself on a team. Prove yourself in training. You're good with that splattershot, show them how good you are."

"And what will happen to you?"

"The same thing. I'm decent with my .52 gal, I can get into a team."

"And we'll play against each other when we've been playing as a team for years. We're good together as a team, why shouldn't we team up?"

Jace put down his sandwich and looked at her, "Then your suggestion is that we lose?"

Callie opened her mouth again, then closed it. Jace turned even farther to look at Callie, "What?"

"We have extra classes for two person teams. Nobody has signed up yet for them, but we have the class. It's a class that you can have after the debriefing. Myself and Marie teach it, we used to play as a two person team."

Now it was Jace's turn to open his mouth like a fish out of water.

"What?"

Callie nodded. "I'm not lying to you. Nobody has signed up, so we don't have any reason to teach it, but it still is a class."

Celine looked at Jace and started talking before he had a chance, "There. We will take the class and be a team of two. Happy, Jace?" She didn't even let him finish before picking up his sandwich and shoving it in his mouth. "Wait, wha- mfff, mfff."

"He'll take the class with me."

"Okay, I'll tell Cuttlefish about it. You guys will start the class tomorrow along with your other classes."

They ate the rest of their lunches and Callie went over to talk to Marie about the team of two class, Jace and Celine were left to look at the different groups and teams that were eating lunch at the tables and discuss how powerful the inklings looked.

"Hey, check out that group in the middle." Celine told Jace. "They've got all aerosprays, maybe they play super offensive?" Jace looked at the group Celine had pointed out and sized up the squids. They were all very hefty inklings, more muscle than anything, but they all had aerosprays strapped on their backs.

"Yeah." Jace said, "They look like they're a very offensive team. I don't think they'd be hard to get around though, and a charger firing on them in a wide open area would definitely end them all quickly. They might think the same about us though, we have mostly offensive weapons and no real covering weapons as we DON'T HAVE A TEAM OF FOUR!"

"Then we need to be faster and play smarter. Now, do you see that team of four in the left hand corner, they've got a great balance of weapons. A roller, charger, 92 Gal, and a splattershot. They've got close up weaponry, ink covering, and mid range power."

"Nah, that team looks like they don't know each other that well. They keep trying to escape to other tables to talk to their friends. Odds are that they don't work well as a team. Find a weak link and punish them."

"Are you not going to admit any team's strengths?"

"Sure. They all have good weapons, there? Happy?"

Celine stared at the unimpressed Jace, "No, not really. You're underestimating every team, that'll never do if we face them. You're going to play like they're nobody squids who had never worked with a blaster before and can barely turn from squid form to inkling. You'll be splatted in seconds."

Jace shot a skeptical look at Celine, "I doubt that. No offense, but I really doubt that."

That was the moment that a flying fruit landed on one of the inkling's who sat on the middle table's head. The same moment that the inkling who was hit threw his own lunch back at his attacker. And the moment that the cafeteria devolved into an all out war of foods.

It was also the moment that Callie walked calmly through the crowd of squids to talk to Jace and Celine: "You guys can go home for today. Same time, tomorrow, we'll see you in classes. Tomorrow's Wednesday, so you can see how the other teams play. See ya tomorrow. Stay Fresh."

Jace left that day with an odd feeling in his mind, like his surroundings were surreal. _What in the world just happened. The day just moved so fast, out of my control._ The day did go ridiculously fast, with him going home with Celine turning into his watching the daily squid news and seeing Callie and Marie on the television. It soon went to him going to bed that day, anticipating tomorrow, but also still feeling surreal. An altogether funny day, but a hopefully better one tomorrow.


	5. classes

"So guys, today we have some new squids with us in the academy," Marie told the beginner battle parkour class the first day that Jace and Celine were in it. "Welcome in Jace and Celine. They were recruited by Agent 3 and are now students here. Jace, Celine, introduce yourselves."

Jace stood up in front of the half circle of squids that were surrounding Marie in Movement classroom 2.

"Hi, my name's Jace. I use the .52 gal, and I'm nineteen years old."

"And I'm Celine, this nimrod's friend." She nailed a thumb in Jace's direction, "I use the splattershot, and I am seventeen years old."

Marie nodded as Jace and Celine sat down, "That's good. In this class we have ten squids counting yourselves. Eddie."

A skinny inkling in front raised his hand.

"Jamie. Parker. Allie. Trian. Splice. Azure. and Cipher."

Each squid raised their hand in response as Marie called their names.

"Today we'll be working on a few basic moves that could use some polishing. This'll be a good introduction for you two. Just using a parkour roll to transfer momentum while falling. If you want to transform into squid form right after the roll is complete, that's good practice for you. This move allows you to make any momentum gained while falling into a forward momentum, it can also hinder an enemy's aim, as they expect you to go into squid form. I'll demonstrate first."

Using her own splattershot, Marie sprayed paint up a set of boxes, then swam up them. From the top she went back into inkling form, sprayed the ground in front of her, then jumped off. She held her hands out to balance herself, and as she hit the ground she curled up and rolled into it. The second that the roll lost momentum, she went into squid form and swam the next five feet.

"Like so," She told the students as she came back into inkling form in front of the students.

Each student tried his hand at the maneuver, and all of them easily passed. Even Jace and Celine were able to complete the maneuver with relative ease. They simply mimicked what Marie did, and didn't break their necks. Marie watched Jace do the parkour roll and as Jace popped up from his squid form she motioned for him to come talk to her.

"Yeah?"

"You need to lean into it more, try it again once Eddie is done and make sure that the second you hit the ground you drop you arm over your leg and fling your body into it."

"Okay."

Eddie launched his body off of the boxes and soared easily twice the distance that most other squids had jumped, and landed lightly on his feet. He dipped his head and rolled through the momentum, diving after his roll into his squid form. This combined momentum left Eddie with no room to swim after he finished his dive, he was already in front of the other students. Jace watched him closely and took notes in his mind, then jumped back into squid form to swim up the boxes.

He reached the top and changed back, then looked down where a line of ink already was left for him. Then jumped off of it. The air whistled past him and he hit the ground and dropped his shoulder, doing what Marie told him, and rolled through his fall. When he popped up next to Marie, she nodded.

"Better. Keep practicing that."

She then had the class jump from boxes to boxes in squid form then jump off of them to do a parkour roll. Each box went a little higher, until the jump was twice what the first jump was. Each student hesitated before jumping, who wouldn't, it was a very long drop. The first jump: 10 feet, easily. The second was well over twenty feet.

This took Marie's class all the way to the end of the period, with her spending a lot of time to polish the form of the other students.

"So what about the class? That was interesting." Celine asked Jace during break.

Jace shrugged, then winced, he got a bruise from the twenty foot drop on his shoulders. "It was actually kind of fun. I never thought of movement that way, Marie really understands how to use movement in fights. She actually told me how I could use these moves in a battle while I was waiting for the others to go."

"But wouldn't you be an easier target?" Celine asked him, and Jace looked at her thoughtfully.

"Well that really depends on the weapon, but anyway we should get to our next class. We need to warm up our aim a little bit before we start, Agent 3 would not be happy with us if we show up with no clue what is going on."

The classroom they were in for the firing range was classroom four in the weapons hall. The group who were upgrading their weapons yesterday were already in there, testing some new modifications. There was four squids surrounding a splat roller as one of the four tried to take it apart.

"Hey, what are you doing in here?" Celine called out to them. They all turned and looked at her, their safety goggles making them look like an octoling hybrid. The one who was making the mods held up a screwdriver and waved it haphazardly, "We're testing out this splat roller. Care to help."

Jace shook his head no, but Celine bounded right over to them and asked what she could help with.

"A moving target." Answered the inkling.

"Wha-" was as far as Celine got before she was coated with the ink covering the roller portion of the splat roller. Pink paint splashed all the way back to Jace and he flinched as drops landed on his cheekbone. He wiped them off as Celine walked back over to him, trying desperately to wipe off her own stains.

"Those jerks," she muttered murderously under her breath.

"So... what did they need help with?" he asked innocently. Then looked at Celine as she glared back at him, a finger on her splattershot's trigger, twitching dangerously. "Ah, never mind. Do you want a towel?"

"One more word Jace, I'm warning you. You will be shot so much your grandchildren will be born with a blue stain on their arse."

"Okay. Okay, okay. I won't mention that stain that's pretty much everywhere. It's not really like there's any way to hide the paint, it's covering your whole body."

They took out their weapons and started firing at the range, or in Celine's case: Jace's shoes.

"Hey! Hey! I just bought these! Don't stain them!"

Celine smiled like a devil's advocate, "Oops, I'm so sorry. I think you have a stain... THERE!"

She blasted Jace in his nose, paint flying up his nostrils.

"Fine. I get it."

Jace was rather careful during their next lesson. Keeping to himself as Agent 3 corrected aiming problems with his students, mostly Jace. Apparently Jace had been shooting all wrong the whole time, or Agent 3 was just looking for an excuse to tease Jace as he was joking with him the whole class. Jace always kept an eye on Celine though, as she kept shooting looks at him while she shot ink at an octopus shaped target.

"Hey, uhh, three? Can I shoot at that target?" Jace pointed at a target across the room, next to a girl squid dressed in a pink skirt. Agent 3 looked at Jace from where he was correcting Eddie's firing stance. He nodded, and Jace moved across the room to a safe distance away from Celine. The squid in the skirt looked at him as he took his stance and fired at a target behind a window.

She nodded to his stance, "So why'd ya move over here?" she asked him, "Ya got a pretty inkling near ya over there, why get a second one?"

Jace looked away from the range to the squid, she had high cheekbones and pretty hair. He caught a whiff of lavender as she looked at him with a hand on her splatterscope and one on her hip.

"That 'pretty inkling' over there is a friend of mine who is a bit trigger happy to those who tease her."

The squid looked at Celine, who was trying to surreptitiously wipe off more ink from her hair, which was frizzy from her attempts at doing so.

"Who inked her?"

"The guys who were in here testing out a new splat roller design. They were modifying it I think."

"OH!" The squid exclaimed then let her voice drop to a whisper, "they don't like anyone. Nobody is safe from their sneak attacks, especially when you're new. They're really nerdy, but are nowhere close to the stereotype. They can take on just as many people as a jock can in a fight, and their weapons give them a massive advantage. They've modified everything from the inkzooka to the E-Liter to be lighter, shoot farther, and shoot even more ink out. But their one weakness has to be that last reason, they shoot so much ink that they need to reload constantly."

Jace looked at her in a new light, she seemed much to pretty to be a fighter, but stereotypes must be completely disregarded in the Splat academy.

"Thanks, the name's Jace."

"Mine's Azure. Nice to meet you." Azure held out her hand and Jace took it. Jace noticed the name's meaning and saw her hair color's corelation.

They continued shooting together until the end of class, and kept talking all the way out the door. Celine walked up to him after him and Azure left the class together.

"Sorry about shooting your shoes. Still wanna eat with me at lunch?"

"Yeah sure, but do you mind if Azure sits with us? She's got some information on those guys who inked you up."

Celine's expression changed, growing more... abrasive. "Oh, those guys. I'd sure like to know some information, how resistant are they to ink blasts to their faces?" Azure looked at her strangely, then shrugged noncommittally.

"As resistance as most."

"Good."

They talked throughout the whole lunch on how to get even on the group, and Azure had some beef with them too. Apparently they had modified some ink to never come out and shot up her favorite skirt. She had to get a new one, but by the time she got it, the skirt had gone out of fashion. Even in the Strategy class she wouldn't focus, but instead was whispering with Celine on how to get even.

Then came the team battles. As expected, they were exciting and intense. All of the teams played harder than any pickup teams Jace had ever seen, even teams that had practiced together. It was almost flawless, the way that the teams moved and fought together. It was almost as if the teams could read each other's minds and the battles were constantly fluidly changing.

Azure's own team was playing against the team headed by Ray, and it was brutal. Azure's own team was fighting spectacularly, but they were no match to how Ray directed his team. They fought like no other team. Jace went home that day with Celine constantly thinking about what skills he saw that day and how he could practice them.

A/N: So, I have to say that I really want to know what you think about this and how I could improve the story. I want to give you guys the best quality chapters, so drop a comment saying an improvement. Thanks for reading, and as always Have a Great Day.


	6. A little reminder

Jace woke up to the sounds of the early morning city, and the banging on his door. Not to mention Celine's voice yelling at him.

"Get up already!" her voice came from outside, "I know you're in there, I can hear you snoring!" Jace got out of bed and mumbled under his breath about her waking up the entire neighborhood. He stuck his head out of the window, "What Celine?" he called out.

"Where were you yesterday?" Was her reply, she had her hands on her hips and was glaring at him like he stood her up.

"What do you mean?"

"When our two person team classes were going on, where were you?"

"Our- oh sh- look, I'm sorry. I completely-"

"Yeah, you forgot, didn't you. You didn't notice that I walked off to the side as you went up the pipe? I WAS GOING TO THE CLASS WHILE YOU APPARENTLY WENT HOME!" Celine interrupted Jace's apology. She took a deep breath and calmed down. "Just make sure you don't forget again, I was waiting with Callie and Marie for a while yesterday while you went home. Instead of training like a team, I was there talking to them the entire time about all the times you've forgotten about something. Let me see, our first tournament. My birthday, three times in a row. Your own birthday six years running. Your age on multiple occasions. Where you put your .52 Gal the last time you used it. The list goes on and on."

Jace went back inside his room and got dressed in cargo shorts and a tee shirt quickly, he did his blue hair up into spikes on the way downstairs, and opened the door to see Celine waiting for him.

"I'm so sorry, Celine. I'll make sure to remember today."

"I hope so. Also, you forgot your .52 Gal again."

Jace looked around his body, "Wha-? Oh, one second." When he reappeared a second time from his home, his gun was strapped to his back. Celine smiled and nodded, and they left for the academy together. Along the way, there was an annoying voice in the back of Jace's head, telling him that he was being watched. Jace looked around.

The only one near him was Celine. But still, there was a feeling in the back of his mind telling him that there was something malevolent watching his movements. The last time he had felt this feeling was when he was mugged two years ago, the sea urchin who mugged him dressed in all black and threatened him at gunpoint to give him any valuables on his body. The only valuables he had was Celine's birthday present. When Jace refused to give the present to the urchin, the urchin poked the gun into the back of Jace's head and told him that it was either the goods or his life. Jace gave the present to the urchin.

Jace was too embarrassed by what had happened to tell Celine that he had her present stolen from him, instead he pretended that he forgot.

But as he walked through the streets of Inkopolis, the feeling returned to him. Celine didn't notice anything, she kept walking like nothing was wrong.

"Celine." Jace said suddenly, she looked at him with surprise. Jace put on a fake smile he hoped looked genuine, "I'll race you to the pipe."

"You're on!" She told him. And suddenly she sprinted away. Jace looked once around himself, then ran off after her. While he ran, the feeling grew stronger, getting closer all the time. Never ceasing until they finally made it to the pipe.

After a dangerous slide down, they walked into the academy. Callie was waiting for them there. "Where were you yesterday?" She asked Jace as he walked in.

"I had forgotten. Celine's already grilled me on this, don't worry, I won't forget again."

Callie laughed, any anger Jace might have imagined in her voice now dissipated. "Okay, fine. All the better that you forgot anyway, Marie and I didn't have a lesson set up. We were working on that last night. But at the lesson we just joked about friends the whole time. Marie told a nice story about when we used to work at Walleye Warehouse and I broke the assembly line, and Celine told us all about how you'd constantly be forgetting things. Did you really forget your gun on the day of you two's biggest tournament?"

Jace remembered back to that day, he sure had... and he had to use a replacement splattershot that he'd never used before, and was practically broken. "Unfortunately, yeah. That was an embarrassing game."

The doors opened behind the group of inklings and another student walked inside, Eddie, the squid from the parkour class.

"Hey Eddie," Callie called out, "How's it going?"

Eddie was quiet, then looked at Callie and shrugged. He walked off while hoisting a splat roller over his shoulder. A squid assaulted him before he could get too far, grabbing his hand and talking to him.

"Have you met Eddie yet?" Callie asked Jace and Celine. Jace nodded, "He's in our first period class. Doesn't talk much, does he?"

Callie shook her head, "No, he's very shy. Me and a few of the other girls here have made it our task to try and break him out of that. So far we haven't made any progress. The most he ever does is just nod or shake his head. Though you don't want to get in the way of his splat roller, they say he only ever smiles when he runs somebody over. But nobody's been able to prove it because they're too busy running back to the start points from being completely covered in ink."

The bell rang for classes to begin.

"Well, you should be off. I'll see you guys in Strategy class today!"

"Bye Callie." Celine called out as they walked to the parkour class. That day Marie made them try out a new tactic called splatterhopping, which involves the inkling doing it to move about an area of enemy ink without touching any of it.

Needless to say, a lot of squids had to hit the showers at break and wash off ink stains.

Azure was firing on her own targets when Celine and Jace walked into the firing ranges. "Hey splat-shoes. How ya doing?"

Jace waved to Azure, "Hi Azure. I'm doing fine." Celine copied Jace's response then added, "Splat-shoes? Where'd you get that nickname from?"

"From when you kept spraying his shoes yesterday."

"Oh." Celine looked at the ground sheepishly. "Sorry about that, Jace."

Jace shook his head, "It's fine, you apologized yesterday anyway. And your ink is never hard to get out of my clothes, I just need to stick it in some water, and the ink floods out of there faster than Judd runs from water."

They shot for a while, and Agent 3 told them about a new style of shooting that they would be learning tomorrow, which involves a group activity and example. Agent 3 promised Jace that there may be a good chance that Jace would be the one in the example, then walked away laughing at Jace's look of abject horror. When the class finally ended, and Jace's imagination of the example disappeared, they walked down to lunch.

"You need to sit with my team today at lunch." Azure told Celine and Jace, "I want you to meet them." Jace and Celine agreed, and sat down with Azure's team of four during lunch. The whole team consisted of girls, save for one boy: Eddie.

"Hey, guys!" Azure said cheerfully as she walked up, "I've got a few people for you to meet. Jace and Celine." They were all introduced over lunch. And on Azure's team there was two girls who were long friends called Rein and Tine. Both of them wore the same pink skirt as Azure, apparently it was a team's uniform, and used splattershot juniors.

The one on the left, Jace could tell it was Tine because she wore her hair in a ponytail instead of letting it down like Rein, asked Jace about his favorite team. She shrieked like a little girl when he said "the Flying Brushes" and called across the room to Ray.

"HEY RAY!"

"WHAT!?" he called back.

"YOU'VE GOT YOURSELF A FAN OVER HERE! JACE HERE IS A BIG FAN OF YOU!"

"COOL! TELL HIM THANKS!"

And nobody in the room looked at either of them like they were weird. Jace, on the other hand, looked at Tine like she was crazy.

"Are you kidding me?" Eddie murmured under his breath, "You don't always need to shout, Tine."

Tine looked at him, "Well when Ray is on the other side of the room... yes, I do need to yell to get his attention." She and Celine then started up a conversation on which weapon would be the best to take out a splat roller. Eddie rolled his eyes and whispered to Jace: "I've always had problems dealing with chargers. They take me out before I'm even close to them."

Jace nodded and whispered back "I always thought that the splat rollers were overpowered because of their extra speed and large spray. But yeah, chargers seem to always give trouble to the rollers. They can just take them out before the rollers can even close the distance."

"What weapon do you use?"

"A .52 Gal."

"So you like emphasizing on power?"

Jace thought about that for a moment, "Yeah, I guess I like that it only needs a few shots to take down opponents. But it isn't that high of a firing rate, so I need just as much accuracy to take people down."

"But that means that fast people using the paintbrush can do a lot of damage to you if they get in close."

"Yeah... I guess."

Eddie took a bite of the pasta he had brought to school, the conversation was effectively over. The bell for the next period came quickly, and soon Jace, Celine, and Azure were in strategy class studying on how to get past a team of chargers who were all in high ground. Jace's suggestion was to launch a killer wail at them, and when they scattered to avoid being splatted, you move up to them and get a roller to charge their location while mid ranged weaponry kept up the pressure.

Callie shot that idea down quickly with pointing out a point on the map that Jace had overlooked, a small hut that could easily keep all the chargers safe from the cover fire.

Jace countered by saying that a bomb could clear them out, or a splash wall could force them to stay inside of the hut while his team goes and captures the rest of the ground.

To that, Callie had no argument. But instead let his idea go. At the end of the class she walked up to Jace and reminded him about the two person classes at the end of the day.

"I'm just warning you so that I don't need to give Callie homework. The homework would be to remind you, and I think that she would be more than happy to remind you in a less pleasant way than what I am doing right now." Callie smiled with her sharp teeth and let Jace go on to the debriefing.

Debriefing was a short matter, just the classes running over what they had learned and the activities going on, along with the current standings of their turf war teams. One of the news points was a small cell of octolings trying to get up to the surface, Cap'n Cuttlefish took volunteers with him after the debriefing to find and end the small group of octolings.

Jace made sure to remember that there was the class after debriefing and not get caught up in the crowd of Inklings going back to their homes, he stayed behind with Celine and met up with Callie and Marie on one of the platforms out over the octo valley after school.


	7. Two people's fight

"A team of two is generally frowned upon by the turf wars community." Callie started the two person team class with, "As there's many disadvantages to be had with two less people."

Marie continued her cousin's thought, "For instance: less firepower, diversity of weapons, ground able to be covered, flanking people will catch you off guard, the list is almost endless. But there's several advantages that the two person team does have. They can spend a lot more time in compact, two person stratagems and can normally pick off members of a group of four that are falling behind. Teams of two kill quick and move quicker, they choose their fights and should never be caught out in the open. In a one on one duel, the two person team member will always outclass the four person team member because the later focuses more on working together as a team instead of their individual skill."

Callie rounded off their intro nicely, "We're here to break that style of individual skill. A team of two should be the better team in general due to its compact skills. We're going to teach you how to be a team of two, not two people on a team." Callie grinned warmly, showcasing her sharp teeth, "It helps that Marie and I played the exact same way before we started our singing careers."

"What weapons did you use? Celine asked.

"I used the splattershot, as did Callie," Marie told her, "we both felt that the splattershot was the most balanced weapon. From what I can tell, you think the same way, Celine."

"Yeah, it just always felt right. I really could never get int-"

Jace felt that it was the time to actually start the lesson and interrupted his friend, "So what will we be doing today to start off the class?" He asked the two teachers. Callie's previously warm grin turned a little violent as she told Jace the plans for that day.

"Well, we're going to start with a small skill assessment. You two are going to battle the two of us."

Jace's blood ran cold, "The two of you? But you're the teachers, you're so much better than us."

"But we need to figure out how good you are as a team." Marie said, "We'll go to the other end of the platform and yell out the word 'begin', then we'll see who wins." It was clear from her tone that she expected Jace and Celine to get destroyed quickly. _Maybe,_ Jace thought, _we can use that to our advantage._

Celine looked as ready as ever, she pulled out her own splattershot, "don't go easy on us."

"We don't plan to."

The squid sisters walked away. Celine looked to Jace, "You're the one who always came up with the good ideas, so what are you thinking right now." Jace's mind was racing full time trying to contemplate the Squid Sister's effectiveness in a two person battle, the only problem was that he had never tried to pick out a strategy for a two person battle, there was always four people to a team.

"They've been together for a very long time, so they'll definitely stick together to try and cover all angles that could be a weakness. They're superior to us in every skill, so we need to maneuver them into an area that we can use to our advantage. I saw an alley to the right side of this platform that could do. We can set up my splat wall at one end and force them in another, that's when you can use your bombs to finish them."

He pulled out his .52 Gal, "But we need to lure them in so-"

"Begin..." Came Callie's voice, faint with distance.

"follow me, Celine."

They rushed off to the right side of the map and Jace pulled out a compact box on their way. They ran to the alley he had specified earlier and he blocked off one of the ends with his splat wall. He painted ink up the wall to their right, and they swam up it to go on top of the roof. From there they had a perfect view of the entire platform, and the Squid Sisters.

They were moving from cover to cover on the complete other side of the map, oblivious to Jace and Celine watching them. As they watched, Callie motioned to Marie and Marie swung around a corner, firing twice before realizing there was nobody there. She turned back to Callie and bonked her on the head, Callie made a negative gesture and Marie put a palm to her head and walked down the alleyway that she had just somewhat sprayed.

"So how are we going to lead them here?" Celine asked.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Jace replied, "We could try to have one of us be bait, but that would be risky and if they catch the person then it would be a one versus two game."

"Do you have your Killer Wail charged, Jace?" Celine said, "we could make them run from us instead of running after us."

Jace looked at Celine with newfound respect, "That's... a good idea. Let's do it. Once we get them in this alley, there's nowhere for them to run. We keep them pinned down while you throw bombs."

"Good. Let's go."

They ran off the edge of the building and jumped, reaching a second rooftop and rolling as they hit it. Their momentum kept going and Jace silently thanked the instructor he was about to beat at her own game. They continued hopping from building to building finally slowing down when Jace estimated that they were getting close to the two Squid Sisters.

Jace crawled to the edge of the building, listening carefully. Rewarding his efforts was the sound of the Squid Sisters discussing tactics on how to flush him and Celine out. He smiled grimly, then crawled back to Celine.

"They're down there." Jace whispered, fingering the trigger of his .52 gal.

"Great, use your wail to force them back once I'm ready with my own barrage. Maybe we can take them out here, that would save the trouble." Celine brought around her own splattershot and looked eager to use it against their teachers.

Jace put up a hand on Celine's shoulder in warning, "Just make sure that you don't get too stretched out. If you get splatted then we're both done for."

"I'm fine, Jace."

"Good, get into position."

When Celine had gotten into her position and gave Jace the thumbs up, Jace sent a thumb back and crawled along the building. The two Squid Sisters were still discussing the ways to get Jace and Celine filled so full of paint they'll swell up like a balloon. Jace got his Killer Wail out and waited for the opportune time to activate it. This came when Callie paused for a moment to listen for something.

"Hey, Callie." Jace called out, "Have fun with this little surprise!" He activated the Killer Wail as Callie and Marie looked up. They both yelled and dodged out and away from the blast as it was fired. They missed by the corners of their shoes and started running away from Jace, who started taking careful shots at them with his .52 Gal. The paint blasts were right behind them the whole way down the alley and they were finally getting out of range when...

"Sup!" Celine shot out from her corner, splattershot launching a deadly salvo.

Callie and Marie skidded on their heels and rushed to the right, firing behind them wildly.

Celine followed them on the ground while Jace stayed on the roofs, always maneuvering himself to guide them in the direction of their trap.

More than one bit of ink actually hit the Squid Sisters while they ran, but it was never enough to do lasting damage. They also fired back at Jace and Celine, and more than once Jace had to pressure the Squid Sisters with his own gun so Celine could wipe off the ink they shot at her.

It took careful procedure, but Callie and Marie ran down the alleyway Jace had set his splat wall up in.

Celine cornered them in and they started firing on her, forcing Celine to take cover. Jace sprayed a line up the side of an adjacent building and swam up. Once on top he started firing down on the Squid sisters, out of range of their splattershots, but definitely using gravity to help his own blasts fly straight.

Jace unloaded his whole tank of ink into that alley, but the Sisters dodged every blast and covered the areas he had shot with their own ink. Their movement was awe inspiring. He was forced to dive back into his ink to reload faster and Callie pressured Celine to take cover again.

By the time Jace and Celine were able to look again, Callie and Marie had both vanished. Jace called out to Celine, "Bombs away, Celine!" and she started lobbing every bomb she had into the alley. The bombs completely covered any portion of ink Callie and Marie would have to move in on the ground, but they weren't on the ground.

They had moved into the walls.

Callie popped out of squid form to shoot a ink splotch onto the wall opposite of her. She jumped across the gap to that ink splotch with Marie right behind her, splatterhopping her way to the other wall.

Jace opened fire.

Callie and Marie jumped away before getting hit by the ink, moving farther up the wall. They kept splatterhopping the whole way up the wall until they came out right in front of Jace, who was reloading.

"Oh crap." He said before getting a face full of ink.

Jace raised his hands in surrender as he felt the ink splatter all over him. "I'm done. Callie, Marie, you got me."

They kept firing, laughing while doing so. And once Jace was completely caked with ink, they moved onto Celine, who was still looking for them in the alley.

Celine was a beautiful shade of orange by the time she made it to the roof of the building Jace was on.

"Did you really not stop when I surrendered?" Celine asked Callie, somewhat annoyed.

"Yes, yes we did."

Celine sighed. "All right, how did we do?"

Callie looked at Marie, who whispered a little something in Callie's ear. She nodded and whispered something back. Then addressed Jace and Celine.

"That trick would have worked on ninety nine percent of people. You would have beat nearly every other two person team, and more than a few four people teams. But there's a few things you could work on. For one thing, you used way too much ink when trying to get us. Those reloads completely killed you. Also, use the bombs earlier, bombs can be good cover and can force the enemies to show themselves even if they survive."

The list went on and on, helping take up a decent portion of the class, with the last portion taken up by Jace and Celine trying to wipe off the ink. Marie gave Jace and Celine homework, and off they went back to the pipe. As Jace went up the pipe back to the surface of Inkopolis, he glanced back at the academy, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadow flit out of his vision.

"What was that?" He mumbled, pulling out his .52 Gal from the strap around his back. He pointed his gun where he saw the shadow. And, deciding it was nothing, he put it away and went up the pipe.

The shadow followed.


	8. Deserter

When Jace got out of the pipe Celine was waiting for him, he walked her back to her house. There were squids all over the place, returning from a massive party in the plaza, and the shadow he thought he saw earlier was nowhere to be found. And if it was anywhere near him, Jace couldn't see it.

"We almost got them."

Jace turned his head to look at Celine, "Yeah. But we didn't."

"But we almost."

Jace tried to put more stress into his words, "We didn't. Celine, we didn't beat them."

"But we almost."

A moan came from Jace, "Is there any winning with you?" He asked, rubbing his hand across his eyes, "You know what, don't answer that." Celine closed her mouth. "I know that there's no winning with you, it's just what you are. But we need to practice harder, we almost got them, but almost never counts for an actual win. We need to do better next time."

A shadow flitted across Jace's vision.

"Celine, get out your splattershot." Jace said while pulling out his own .52 Gal. Celine didn't question it, Jace was deadly serious, she unholstered her splattershot and stood ready.

"What's wrong?"

"Someone, or something, is following us."

Celine turned around, pointing her gun behind them, as if expecting some sort of enemy to be there. Seeing nobody behind them, save for other inklings who may or may not have been drunk, she turned back to Jace.

"What makes you say that?"

"A shadow has been behind me the whole day, but whenever I looked it would be gone. I don't know what it would be, but there's something that's watching." An idea came to Jace, "Hey, let's go. Come with me." She followed, not really accepting his logic, but respecting his gut feelings.

Jace led Celine down an alley to their right, sliding behind some garbage cans. Jace blasted the ground and sunk into squid mode, Celine followed him into the ink. Jace waited, minutes passing until he felt a body pass by his ink splotch. He pulled out of the ink and popped upwards, pulling his gun towards the body. "Hands in the air!"

The body turned around, revealing a black spandex clad girl with goggles and weird hair, something Jace hadn't seen before. The creature shrieked, flinging itself to the right. Jace froze, not recognizing his enemy. The creature turned from it's dodge, showing a splattershot pointing straight at Jace's face.

"Holy crap!" Jace dropped to the ground as a volley flew above his head, "Celine!"

Celine jumped out of the ink, blasting at the creature. The creature turned and ran, the shots from Celine hitting it on the leg as it ran. The shots slowed it down marginally, causing it to limp away slowly. The creature hissed as it went, firing over its shoulder to keep Jace and Celine under cover.

"What the hell is that!" Celine shouted at Jace, "I've never seen it before."

"I don't know, but it's going to kill us, we need to take it down first. I think that is what has been stalking me the past day, but I'm not so sure, maybe we can question it if we don't kill it first."

Jace looked up over the trash can he used as cover, seeing the creature's back disappear behind a corner in the alleyway. "come on" He slid out from the cover, .52 Gal pointed at the corner it went behind. Celine went up behind him, splattershot held over Jace's shoulder. They approached the corner cautiously, ready to fire if it showed even the slightest bit of its body. Jace ran up to the corner and put his back to it, catching his breath he turned quickly and fired twice down the adjacent alley.

The shots splattered harmlessly against the floor, no creature. Jace walked into the alley and looked up. Above him was the creature, hanging onto the top of a wall, waiting for him to pass.

It yelled out a battle cry and dropped from the wall onto Jace, gun pointed straight in his face. It's legs wrapped around him to keep him still and it pulled the trigger.

Jace rammed his head to the right, the ink splattering next to him and some of the ink spraying onto the side of his head, but not a killing blow. Celine was right behind him and she ran up and slammed the butt of her gun into the creature. The creature screamed and fell off of Jace. It didn't move from where it fell, Jace checked its pulse and breathing.

"It's still alive, I think that you knocked it out, Celine, thank you." Jace got up, wiping the ink off of his face, "That was way too close. But what do we do with this thing?"

Celine put a hand on her hip, "Take it back to Cap'n Cuttlefish? He'd know what it is."

Jace held his face, the spot where the ink was still stung. "Ouch." Celine looked at the side of his face.

There was a small gouge in his cheek, lining where the creature's ink had been. Jace's life-ink seeped out of the cut, staining his hand as he held his face. "That hurts, what the heck happened?"

"It looks like that thing's ink burned your skin. We're going to need to get that checked, back to the Academy. I hope to god that Callie, Marie, and Cuttlefish are there, I'd even settle for Agent 3. Anyone there who could treat this burn."

Jace took his hand away and looked at his life-ink, going a little dizzy as he looked at what was previously in his body. He looked at the creature, somewhat peaceful now that it had stopped trying to kill Jace and Celine. Jace reached down and picked the creature up over his shoulder, a fireman's carry. The creature wasn't very heavy and Jace picked her up easily.

Celine kept careful watch over the creature as Jace carried it through the crowds of inklings who were returning home from the party that was in the square, he got plenty of weird looks, but nobody stopped him. They walked all the way back to the pipe and went down it, returning to the academy, when they got there a horrific sight greeted them.

A group of four of the creatures were standing at the exit of the pipe the second Jace and Celine, along with their captive, got there. They looked at Jace and his prize in shock. Jace pulled his gun out, pointing it at each in turn, "Don't make any moves."

They made a move for their weapons.

Jace and Celine blasted all of them in the face with their guns before the creatures could pull their own splattershots around to fire on Jace and Celine. Each of the creatures screamed as the ink hit them, writhing in pain until the ink killed them. The creatures dissolved in front of Jace's eyes.

He moved towards the Academy, but didn't get far until a small group of inklings stopped him. The volunteer group who were going to take out the Octolings.

"Jace?" One of the squids in the group said, Azure. "What are you doing here? And with an Octoling?"

"Is that what these are?" Jace asked, "I just know that this thing attacked me. We knocked it out and were just taking it to Cap'n Cuttlefish."

"You've never seen an Octoling before?" Azure asked him.

"No... but now I do."

"Have you seen any others like that one?"

Jace pointed back towards the pipe, "Killed four back there."

Azure looked to the other squids in her group, "The cell we were sent to kill. You two." She pointed at the squids, "go investigate. We'll take this one back to Cuttlefish, we've got a captive."

Azure and her other companion, a squid with green hair and a .52 Gal Deco, escorted Jace and Celine to the offices. Cap'n Cuttlefish was in there, checking some sort of paperwork. He looked up as they walked in, setting down a pair of reading glasses.

"You have a prisoner?" He asked Azure. She shook her head.

"No. Jace found this one on the surface. It attacked him and he knocked it out. He says that when he came back down the pipe to return he and Celine ran into the cell we were looking for. They almost made it into the pipe when he shot all of them."

Jace set down the Octoling, it still knocked out, and gripped the side of his face as a wave of stinging washed over him. "Gaah. What makes this ink hurt so much, I've been shot before by ink and it never hurt this much."

Azure looked at his face, "Oh my god. You were hit."

"Yeah, great deduction, Sherlock."

Cap'n Cuttlefish took a look at it, "You need ta clean that out. Azure, take 'em to the hospital room, we have the supplies there ta clean out his wound. Explain the properties of the ink while you do this. Celine, Horinar, and I will take care of the prisoner."

Azure took Jace behind the offices to something along the lines of a nurse's office, inside there were a few beds and a lot of medical supplies. Azure looked around in a few cabinets before finding the right medicines and began rubbing it along Jace's burned area.

"So this is the first time you've been hit with Octarian ink?"

Jace nodded.

"Well their ink and our ink just doesn't mix. While our ink will do nothing to each other, save for maybe sting for a bit if the safety restrictions of the gun is off, the Octarian ink is acidic to us. And vice versa too. Our ink will kill them as easily as a knife or water would, and their ink does the same. It eats away the ink in our bodies, creating a burning sensation, and over time it could finish us off completely. Inkling ink doesn't hurt other inklings, it's just the rules of turf wars that make us go back to our returning point. I couldn't do anything but annoy you if I shot you here, but if the little friend you brought back decides to shoot you, make sure to dodge."

Jace thought on this, the burn on his face going back to a dull throbbing instead of a sharp spike. "But what are the Octarians?"

"They were the other species here with us, we had a war with them many years ago that we had won. Not many inklings know about the Octarians today, and those that do hear the name think that they're just a scary story used to scare baby squids into behaving. But in the academy, we're here to continue the fight."

She placed a bandage over Jace's face, tying it in place with gauze.

"You should be fine now. Let's go back to the Cap'n."

She got him off of the bed and they walked back to the offices. The Cap'n had tied down the Octoling to a chair and taken its weapon away, the Octoling still hadn't woken up. When Jace walked in, Celine went right to his side, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it doesn't hurt as bad now. Did you clean the ink you shot her with off of her leg?"

Cuttlefish looked at him, "You guy's shot this one? Where?"

"The back of the leg, courtesy of Celine."

He took a look at the Octoling's legs, "Yeah. This is a good shot. Azure, get a wipe, we don't need ta give an Octoling the full treatment. Just enough that it doesn't die on us."

Azure ran back into the hospital room, and came out moments later with it. She handed it to the Cap'n who deftly started cleaning the wound. The wound wasn't very deep, but it looked painful. The Octoling hissed as it felt the wound being touched. It only took around a minute until the Octoling's wound was cleaned, the Octoling stirred once Cuttlefish took away the wipe.

"Lookee here. It might be waking up."

And the Cap'n was right, before their eyes the Octoling began moving around, looking at everyone in turn and then at its restraints. It opened it's mouth.

"Where am I. Who are you." It's voice was weird, a little bit of hissing came out with every word. The Cap'n looked down at it, "You're a prisoner. You've attacked me students but they were better than you and were able ta knock you out and take you here. I am Cap'n Cuttlefish, the leader here. You are going to answer our questions, otherwise Jace here will be more than happy to shoot you." Jace pulled out his gun. "Now who are you."

The Octoling sighed, there was no way she'd be keeping anything secret, "Ora."

"Why did you attack my students?"

"I didn't know that they were your-"

"Why did you attack my students?" Cap'n Cuttlefish said it sterner. Jace raised his gun a little.

"I thought that they were coming after me."

"Are you a part of the Octoling Cell that was on its way to the surface?"

"No. But I do know why they were coming to the surface."

"Do tell."

"Me. They wanted me. I deserted the Octarian army one week ago, have been making my way up the octo valley ever since. I figured that I could hide out on one of the platforms, but they came after me, thought I was trying to get to the enemy. Ah-" The leg wound was steaming a bit, "I was forced to run into Inkopolis right after that guy did." She pointed at Jace. "Didn't think that there was anywhere else to go, I followed him, hoping that he'd lead me somewhere safe. Instead, he attacked me with a trap he set. I fought back. And that's how I ended up here."

"Why did you desert."

I- AH!" Ink flew freely from her wound, despite it being cleaned it seemed that the full treatment was necessary. Cap'n Cuttlefish motioned for Azure to get some supplies. She left.

"Jace," Cuttlefish told him, "You can go for today, good work. Maybe we can figure out something about the octarians from her. Get some rest, don't put strain on your face, and keep an eye out for any other 'deserters'. Could just be spying on us. I don't believe her just yet."

Jace nodded, "Let's go Celine." And they left for the pipe. Jace kept one eye in the shadows the whole way back to his home, but nothing jumped out to attack him. He walked Celine to her house and told her to stay safe. When Jace got back to his room, he collapsed onto his bed, instantly falling asleep.


	9. Responsibility for Necessity

Jace was in the middle of Firing Range class with Agent 3 when a hidden PA system said in Cap'n Cuttlefish's voice"Will Jace from period two Firing Range please come ta my office?". Agent 3 looked up at where the voice came from, he stared for a moment then looked to Jace.

"You'll not be in the demonstration for today, go."

In the office, the first thing that Jace noticed was a chair. Just a normal swivel chair. But in it was the Octoling from yesterday, Ora. She was restrained in the chair by ropes, as Jace walked past her she looked up and nodded to him, light catching her goggles. Jace nodded back, then moved into the door to Cuttlefish's office.

"You wanted to see me sir?" He said to Cuttlefish, who was seated facing a window to the platforms outside. The view was phenomenal, Jace saw, the sun was high over Octo Valley and the platforms shone with multicolored ink.

The Cap'n turned to look at Jace, "Yes. Callie and Marie told me that you wanted ta participate with Celine in a two person splat wars team, and you even started taking the two person team classes?"

"Yes sir, our first lesson was yesterday. That's why I was so late leaving, and also the reason why I was able to run into Ora out there before she made it deep into the city."

"Good. Then follow me."

Cuttlefish got out of his seat and grabbed his cane, hobbling to the door he held it open for Jace. Jace followed him. They walked past Ora, who watched them go, and down the halls to the outside of the building. Cap'n Cuttlefish could hardly make it easy on Jace, he was much faster with his cane than Jace was led to believe. Cuttlefish had them wander to the first of the platforms, this one covered in pink and blue ink from the battles a few days ago.

Jace stayed in silence, as did the Cap'n, with only the clinking sound of Cuttlefish's cane making any noise. Once they were to the highest point on the platform, a circular tower with a staircase following it up, the Cap'n continued again.

"I'm going ta assume that you're the captain of your team." He said, "As Callie found it in herself to mention that you were the one coming up with the plans not only in her strategy classes, but during the match you two had. Her report dictated that you were the one who was calling out the shots for Celine to follow up on. Am I wrong in saying that?"

"No, sir. It was my strategy to maneuver Callie and Marie into an alleyway then barrage them with bombs. Celine was the one who made that all possible, as she was the one who was guiding them on the ground, I merely helped when needed."

"Okay. Well then, if you're going ta be a team, I'm going ta need a team name from you."

"Sir?"

"A name, a name. The all important team name. Y'know, the thing that people know you by? The point of interest that gets everyone ta know what ta talk about when your team does well? What's your team's name, Jace?"

Jace thought for a moment, "I'm going to have to ask Celine that. I might be the strategist, but she's my teammate." Cuttlefish nodded respectfully, "Good choice. I think that you as a leader might be a good choice. You have tact. Now, you might want ta get a name before next week and tell me."

"Why is that, sir?"

"You'll be in the battles."

Jace's jaw dropped, he sputtered mindlessly. "I'm sorry? We just started the classes. We are very much new to this, we're hardly on the quality that the other teams are playing at."

Cuttlefish didn't care one bit, "You're a team, right?" At Jace's nod he continued, "Then you'll play as one of our teams. The only reason you didn't fight this week was that you didn't have a team to fight for. Now you do. There we go, problem solved. I also want you ta consider something else before tomorrow."

"What is that?"

The Cap'n sighed and rubbed his eyes like he was tired. Now that Jace got a good look at him, Cuttlefish did look tired. There were bags under his eyes, and he was much more serious than he had been in the past, the team name portion had been the only randomly fun outburst that he'd had so far that day. Sweat collected on the Cap'n's palms and he was a paler shade than he'd been in the past.

"Well, Jace, this is about that Octoling girl that you brought in yesterday. She still claims that she knew nothing about the other Octolings other than that they were after her for deserting. You were the one who killed the Octolings, did they make any moves towards her?"

"I didn't have any time to notice, I just saw their guns go up and I fired first on them. I wouldn't take any chances, not when Celine's life and my own life were in danger. And to an extent, Ora's life."

"Fine. We asked her questions last night after everybody left. She maintains her story about how she had deserted from the Octarian armies. I really want to believe her, but I just can't yet. Thinking on this last night left me with no time ta sleep, and I still didn't make any progress by pondering this problem. Compound that on the fact that we don't have any room ta keep anyone captive. No food for sustaining her, no rooms for her to sleep in, and we can't keep an eye on her constantly. And that means that I have no clue on what ta do. I was hoping that you would have an idea, since you were the one who made contact with Ora first and the cell we were looking for."

Jace made a negative gesture, "Sorry, sir, but I have just as much knowledge of her as you do." An idea then struck Jace. A stupid, foolish idea, but an idea none the less.

"Sir?" He asked, Cuttlefish gave him a gesture for him to continue. "Put her under my custody. She will be kept under constant surveillance by myself and Celine. She will hardly be seen by the public of Inkopolis, and when I go here she can come with under my watch. Ora would be under my responsibility, sir, and I would accept punishment if something were to happen involving her."

Cap'n Cuttlefish considered the idea, weighing pros and cons in his head before coming to a decision.

"Jace," He started, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "I don't know you that well. You had just started school here and I'm unable ta be constantly watching every lesson. But Callie and Marie both expressed their enthusiasm for your skills and creativity in planning things, and Agent 3 brought you here saying that you had promising attributes, so I will consider this a test of your character."

He paused, "You may have custody of Ora, but she must not be involved in anything bad. You are ta feed her, house her, and watch her carefully that way she doesn't turn out ta be somebody the Octarians sent ta spy on us. I'm not pleased with letting her out of my sight, but know this; if you mess up with her, I will unfortunately have to presume that you failed in your job and expel you from my school. That's the only way I can be sure that you will try your best on this."

Jace heard this and could hardly believe it, Cap'n Cuttlefish thought that he was trustworthy. Callie and Marie believed that he was skillful. And if he succeeded at keeping Ora out of trouble, then no doubt would all of them think of him even higher than they already do.

"Yes sir!" Jace enthusiastically said, "I will not disappoint you."

"Good. Then you might as well go ta the lunch room, second period classes are mostly over already, so it's really not going to be worth going back to class. Ora will be in the office waiting for you at the end of the day."

Cuttlefish started walking down the spiral staircase, careful with his cane so as not to trip and fall into oblivion below. Jace hung back for a moment, wondering on what life would be like now. He'd need to make sure to pay careful attention to Ora, make sure that she doesn't try anything funny, but if she was telling the truth and really was deserting... he'd need to question her on this.

Jace made his own way down the platform and back to the lunch room, at lunch he once again sat with Azure, Celine, and Azure's team of Eddie, Tine, and Rein. The instant he sat down, Celine pelted him with questions. It was almost like she was blasting him with her gun from the amount and speed her questions were fired with.

"What did he call you in for?"

"Was it about the Octoling?"

"Did anyone say anything about me?"

"Where did you go?"

"Was anyone else there?"

Lunch was pulled out of Jace's bag, and he took a bite while enduring the deluge of words. Once Celine had finished, he swallowed, and finally told her.

"We're going to be participating in the next battles as a two person team. And Cap'n Cuttlefish wants to know what our team name will be."

"Blasting Fresh."

Jace actually flinched from how fast she came up with the name. "When did you think of that name?"

"Just now."

All this time, Azure and her team was just watching in silent amusement. She leaned over and whispered something in Eddie's ear, and he actually smiled, a weird look on his face. He always seemed very... detached from the world. Impassive. He was even able to remain stony faced through Celine's barrage of questions.

"Also," Jace continued, "I'm now in charge of the Octoling we captured yesterday. She's under my care now."

That successfully interrupted Celine's questions. She stared at Jace with her jaw dropped the whole rest of the lunch period, not even eating her meal. When the bell rang, she stared at him as he left the room to go to Strategy Class, but when she arrived at Strategy class, five minutes late, she seemed to have calmed down.

"So, she's going to be with us from here on out?"

"Yep... hey, help me with this problem. What weapon counters a .52 Gal, I have no clue."

"Close range splat roller, they counter absolutely everything... it's just that you and your perfect weapon do have weaknesses now that we're against people who are actually good. Now don't change the subject, why do we have her?"

"Cap'n Cuttlefish couldn't hold her here, so I volunteered to be responsible for her."

"Fine... now it's your turn to help me out on a question, who in their right mind would be in a four on one fight when the other team all have splat rollers? What the heck!"

At the end of the day, Jace and Celine went over to the offices and knocked on Cuttlefish's door. He walked right out and unlocked the lock holding the ropes in place around Ora and gave them to Jace along with the key. She stood up cautiously, rubbing her arms where the ropes were all day. "What's going on?" She asked Cuttlefish. He didn't answer, instead looking to Jace for him to address Ora.

"I'm now in charge of you." He told Ora, "You'll be with me from now on, I'm here to keep an eye on you for Cap'n Cuttlefish."

"You?"

"Yes me."

"You're the one who got me yesterday." She looked from him to Celine, "Both of you were there. What's your names?"

"I'm Jace."

"And I'm Celine."

Ora held out a hand to shake with the two of them, but Jace and Celine chose to ignore it for now. "Okay," She said, "I assume that we'll be going now, especially now that my ropes are off."

Jace nodded, "Yeah. Let's go."

They walked out of the academy, Ora between Jace and Celine. As they walked, they got more than a few strange looks from the other students, Jace even caught whispers from them behind their backs.

"What are they thinking, not keeping that thing in chains."

"Maybe they're going to execute it."

Ora clearly heard, and kept her head high while walking, ignoring the whispers stoically. They made their way to the pipe, and Jace had Celine go first, then Ora. Ora didn't change into her octopus form, but instead began walking careful along the sides of the pipe, avoiding the Inkling ink. Jace was patient, following her in his squid form through the ink.

They made it up to the top without Ora falling in, and continued walking back to Jace and Celine's neighborhood. They made sure to take back roads and less traveled paths so as not to gather attention. Didn't stop an old sea urchin from watching them walk along. When they finally made it back to Jace's home, the sun was just beginning to set and shadows began to elongate. Celine went to her house, and Jace to his, opening his door to let Ora in first.

"Thank you, how gentlemanly." She said as she passed through the doorway.

"No problem." Jace said, then he showed her around his house, luckily he had a free guest room that she could sleep in. He made sure to point out to her that both the window and door will be locked when she'd be sleeping there.

"I wouldn't expect it any other way." Ora told him, "I don't think that you guys would trust me for a long while. I used to be one of your enemies." She looked at Jace's face and saw his bandage that he had over the burned spots. "And I had shot you yesterday."

Jace frowned, "It's nothing."

"I'm sorry."

The compassion made Jace stop. "It's fine." He told her, "It doesn't hurt that much anymore. I doubt that you wouldn't shoot me now. It was only in self defense."

"Yeah... considering the fact that I don't have my gun on me. Cuttlefish deigned to keep it." Ora laughed, a funny sound when it mixed with the natural slight hissing of her voice. Jace smiled too, the frown melting off as her laughter was infectious.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to shoot you here. I promised Cuttlefish that nothing would happen to you, or from you." He slightly emphasized the latter. "Now, I'm wondering, have you had some sort of food since captured?"

That caught Ora's attention, she clasped her hands together, "No, I haven't. Do you have something to eat? I'm absolutely starving."

So Jace decided to cook up a few fresh fruit dishes. Since moving out of his parent's house, he'd become quite a bachelor cook, and the food was phenomenal. Ora took one whiff of the aroma, took one bite, then devoured the whole thing. It was as if she hadn't eaten anything quite like it before, and as soon as Jace had finished serving up his own plate of the meal, Ora had gotten seconds.

"I'll take that as a compliment to my cooking." He said, taking a bite of the dish.

"Holy crap, where'd you learn to cook?"

"Taught myself." Jace said proudly, beaming as he was able to share a good meal with Ora. "I just kept experimenting with different flavors and combinations, and that's what got results."

"Well it's phenomenal. I've never had such good food before, back in the Octarian army..." And Ora began talking about being in the Octarian army. Jace paid close attention to that.

"When we were inducted into the force back around age... I dunno, twelve, we were taught that life isn't designed to be enjoyed. And the food the cooks gave us completely lived up to that ideal. It was so bland and tasteless, like a guy with no taste buds was asked to make the meal. And most of the meals were completely inedible too."

She continued talking, Jace learning many things about the Octarian army. How the officers never really cared for their troops, save for a select few. The cooks hadn't two brain cells to rub together. Most Octarians had a long standing rivalry with the other units for Inkling kills. How Octolings were automatically selected for advanced training just because they were a bit more special.

At the end of the day, as Jace locked Ora's door and singular window, he realized that he'd learned more about the Octarians in one night, than he'd done in all his years alive.


	10. Ora's first day

_Knock, knock, knock._

Ora woke up to the sounds of Jace knocking on her door. She groaned as the covers fell off and she got up from her rest, that night's sleep was better than she'd ever gotten in the Octarian army. Most days they woke up before four o'clock, just because their superiors felt like it. From outside the door, Ora heard a click, then Jace's voice. "Ora, wake up, I decided to make some breakfast before we go."

She visibly perked up at the word 'breakfast'. The dinner last night was an amazing change of pace from what she'd been used to. She remade the bed then tried the door, Jace had apparently unlocked it.

The smell of breakfast had already seeped upstairs to distribute delicious aromas throughout the house. Ora lifted her head and sighed contentedly. "Okay." She called back.

Downstairs, Jace had already gotten his portion of the food: fluffy pancakes with a strawberry syrup, eggs and bacon on the side. Ora saw this and was speechless.

"Go ahead, get as many pancakes as you would like. I made enough for you to have thirds if you really wanted, figured you'd be just as hungry this morning as you were last night." Jace told her, piling some powdered sugar on his stack of pancakes. Ora nodded and grabbed a plate from the table, sticking on as many pancakes as it could hold, then pouring down syrup.

She dug in to the fluffy flapjacks, savoring each bite as if it were her last. "Thish esh sheh gehd!" She said through a mouthful of pancake.

"Sorry?"

Ora swallowed and tried again, "This is so good!"

"Thanks." Jace finished off his set of pancakes, then ran upstairs to grab the .52 Gal. When he came back downstairs, the whole pile of pancakes waiting to be eaten had disappeared. Along with all the strawberry syrup he'd made, and the toppings he'd set out. He merely stared.

"Sorry," Ora told Jace apologetically, "I told you that they were really good, and I'm still really hungry."

Jace recovered composure, "I'm not mad or anything. I was done with my helping, I'm glad that you enjoyed the pancakes. But since you're done, we might as well meet Celine to go to the Academy."

"The place you inklings kept me at?"

"Yeah, that. I can't allow you to go anywhere without supervision, I'm in charge of what happens to you. If you turn out to be against us, then I can't allow you to run away or hurt somebody. If that means hurting you to prevent that, so be it."

Ora grimaced, "Don't worry. I'm in no mood to go back to the Octarians, and I'm in no mood to go get knocked out again by another inkling. Geez, what do you make your guns out of." She rubbed a spot on her forehead like it troubled her. Jace shrugged, then motioned for the two of them to get a move on. They walked to Celine's home, and the second that Jace knocked she showed up.

"Hey." Celine said as she walked outside, the splattershot in hand.

"Hey." Came the response. "Let's go."

Again as they went down the pipe, Jace and Celine swam behind Ora as she tried carefully to not step in the inkling Ink. There was one strenuous moment where a bit of plastic got in the way of Ora's shoe and she slipped, falling directly over the ink trail. Jace, thinking quickly, popped out of squid form to slide under Ora. He let out an "oof!" as she landed on top of him, but neither of them were hurt. However, as Ora fell, Celine saw a small discolored patch of skin under Ora's hair.

When they got out of the pipe, thankfully with nobody getting hurt in the process, Celine stopped Ora to look at the discoloration again. She stared at it with a concerned look on her face.

"Is this where I-"

"Knocked me out." Ora interrupted, "Yeah. That's where I was hit."

"Oh my god, I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I shot your boyfriend here, so we're even."

Jace looked up, "I"m her?"

"He's my what?"

"No." They said together. Then Jace shrugged, "Well... I maybe it's that-" He was cut off by Celine elbowing him in the gut.

"We're not together." Celine said sternly. "I've never thought about Jace that way, and I don't think that he's ever thought about me like that either." She didn't notice Jace behind her trying to tell Ora a different story silently. Ora thought that Celine not looking behind herself was a good thing for Jace's health.

Before they walked in to the Academy, Jace took Ora to the side of the building, promising Celine that they'd just be a second. "I need to ask her something privately." He told Celine. Him and Ora walked around the side and Jace explained.

"Do you want to go to the office and stay there, or go to the classes with myself? Odds are that if you go to the classes, you'll be hated by the other students, and you might not be able to join in the activities we do here."

Ora shrugged at this, "And odds are that if I go to the offices, I'm gonna be bored the whole time. I'll go with you... better than staying put in ropes the whole day. Anyway, what could the other inklings do to me? I'm under your protection, remember, you've got to keep them from harming me, or me from harming them."

"They don't respect me yet." Jace told her, "I'm still new here. None of them know me save for a select few, and most don't like me as well. Celine's been completely inked down by several of them before, and inkling ink actually hurts you. It might just be safer in the offices."

Jace wanted to say more, but Ora had already begun walking towards the entrance doorway. He sighed and followed her inside. There were whispers all around, most dealing with how much the students hated Ora, but several complimenting her on her stupid bravery. Maybe not compliments once Jace thought about them. All the while, Ora stuck close to Jace's side, making sure that nobody got any ideas. Unfortunately this also earned the both of them nasty looks.

They went to Jace's first class, and there was no trouble from anybody there. Marie didn't even act like there was a new person in the class, merely asking Jace if Ora would join in. He left that decision up to Ora, but she decided to sit out and watch. They studied using walls without ink, jumping off some to fire in the opposite direction, and if an inkling was especially good: they would be asked to run along the wall, firing while they did so.

Nobody was able to fully run along the walls while firing, though someone with a splattershot jr. got very close to doing so. She was inches away when her shoes slipped on the wall and she fell face first into the floor. She got up spitting out ink, and when Marie took a look at her, there was a cut in her cheek. Marie made her go to the medical office before the bleeding got serious.

Jace constantly kept an eye on Ora in his peripherals, as some of the inklings would fire while jumping off of the wall in her direction. Some of the ink got close, but none within five feet of her.

When it was Jace's turn to first try the wall, he ran up to it at an angle and jumped far, but too far. He face planted into the wall, his shoes slipping on it to fly out from under his body and the momentum flinging his face right into the side of the wall. A hissing laugh sounded throughout the room, and everybody looked around to find out where it was coming from before realizing it was Ora's laugh. Celine joined in as well, alleviating some of the stress by poking fun at Jace, but unsuccessfully driving attention away from the Octoling girl.

Eventually, though, Jace was able to perform the wall jump while firing away from his body. This was after multiple incidents involving his face giving the wall a high five.

Now slightly dizzy, they went to break. Jace once again stressed how he felt about Ora joining them in classes, especially for the next class: The firing range, but she once again denied his concerns. During the break, after Ora had decided she would join in the class, Jace decided to play it safe and not give her back her weapon.

Agent 3 stared at Ora for a bit before moving on with his lesson, apparently deciding she was not a threat. He asked each of the inklings to fire whichever way they felt that they needed practice with, and moved around the firing range correcting mistakes. When he came to Jace, Jace was letting Ora use his .52 Gal as it was filled with Inkling ink and wouldn't hurt anybody, and corrected Ora's grip on the gun.

She argued, saying that this was how she was taught as an Octoling to hold her Octoshot, but Agent 3 countered by saying that: "Well you might have learned how to shoot an octoshot, and that may be the grip on an octoshot, but this isn't an octoshot. This is a .52 Gal, a high caliber inkling weapon, and as such it is different from the octoshot. Therefore, I say that your grip is wrong for the gun you are firing."

After that she allowed him to correct her grip without any other argument. And once again she garnered looks from the rest of the inklings there.

Azure didn't walk up to them during the class that time, but when lunch came around she was more than happy to introduce herself. While the mechanical group of inklings worked on splat walls at the other table, Azure was asking Ora about how she learned to fire a gun. The two girls struck it off instantly, and were laughing minutes later at a joke Tine told and Eddie was completely stony faced about.

They then started teasing Eddie about how he won't even talk to Ora.

Ora was just starting to tell a funny joke about how the chefs in the Octarian army don't think that food should be edible, when the mechanic squids yelled out and a stream of ink careened out of the splat wall to fly straight towards Ora.

The Octoling girl looked up one second too late, and tried to get out of the way of the ink, but only succeeded in letting it graze her shoulder. Jace looked at the burn on Ora, then glared at the mechanic squids who hid their smiles a moment too late. Jace grabbed his gun, but Celine held it down.

"This won't do anything to them. It won't teach them a lesson, and odds are that in the chaos that will come from a splat war, Ora would be hit."

Jace nodded, "You're right, can't risk it." He then watched as Tine and Rein took a look at Ora's injury. Tine ordered Eddie to go get a salve from the medical office, and when he got back with it she spread the salve on Ora's shoulder. Ora grimaced, but held herself well as the burn was taken away. When the salve had fully dissolved into her skin, Ora even let out a visible moan of relief.

"I'm fine." She said, "Thank you." Ora then addressed the mechanic Inklings, "Hey!" She called out to them, they looked up in shock. "Mind being a bit more careful about how badly you screw up your weapons? Thanks."

The mechanic inklings flinched as if she had slapped them. Most of the other inklings in the cafeteria simply yelled out a massive "OOOOH!" at the mechanics being called out, no matter who it was by. The mechanics after that glared at Ora the whole time, making rude gestures and mumbling among themselves, their splat wall lying to the side forgotten.

The last class with the other inklings went by without much problem as well, Ora not really joining in the strategy class and instead going to the office at Callie's insistence.

"If you turn out to be a spy," Callie told Ora apologetically, "We can't just bandy about our strategic ways in front of you, can we. You understand, right?"

Ora informed Callie that, yes, she did understand, and didn't blame them in the slightest. "In fact," she said, "That's probably the safest thing to do here. At least it's not for the whole day."

When the class was over, Jace walked back to the office to get Ora. He was right at the door when he heard two people talking, Ora, and someone else who he hadn't heard yet.

"Just let me out." The second voice was saying, "It would take just one second and nobody would ever know it was you."

"Sorry, Octavio." Ora's voice told the second voice, "But there's a reason why I left you and your pitiful military, many reasons in fact. One of which is that I don't really appreciate how badly you treat your soldiers. Now that you're the one in the over sized snowglobe, I'm not taking any orders from you. Least of all to break you out of here. You were the one who was defeated, not me. And everybody in the octarian army knew that it was just you against one inkling, and you couldn't kill him. In fact, that inkling now teaches here, he taught me how to hold an inkling weapon today, and truthfully I think of him much higher than I ever thought of you. So go stuff it."

"So help me, Octoling, If I ever get out-"

"What would you do?"

"I would make sure that your life is a living hell. You aren't the only Octarian who knows how to hold an inkling weapon, and you also know the price for deserting. So the second I get out of here-"

Jace decided that this was the point that he would interject, he walked in and the second voice, which belonged to the octarian in the ball, fell silent.

"Hey, Ora, time to go. I have one more class."

She followed him out, not even looking at the octarian behind the ball.

The last class was the two person team class that took place after the debriefing. Ora helped out Callie, Marie, Jace, and Celine with little menial tasks and tidbits. And once the day was done, they went right back to Jace's house, Jace too tired to do anything else but eat some leftovers and go to sleep. Though he still made sure to lock Ora's door again before going to sleep himself.


	11. Weekend of Change

The weekend.

A term all squids know, but not many consider as they mostly live in a state of continuous weekend. Yet for those Inklings in the Splat Academy or some other secret society designed to train and protect squid-kind: the weekend was a portion of freedom out of every week.

"The Splat Academy is very fun." Jace was telling Ora over Saturday breakfast: Eggs Benedict, "But I still need to make a living. The best way to make money as a skilled Inkling is to battle with the teams in the games we hold. Every battle I participate in, and win, I earn a share of the money the spectators pay. The better a squid does, the more spectators will show up to his matches to watch. The last weekend, however, I took it off to spend time with you, but now I'm almost broke. If I can't make money, that means no more good food."

Ora pretended like she was in shock for a moment, then continued eating her eggs benedict. "So what will I do for the day?" Ora asked Jace, "I sure as hell am not going to go with you into those games. You know I can't be touched by Inkling ink. It wouldn't be too healthy for me."

It had been two weeks since Jace took responsibility for Ora, and he'd learned a wealth of information about the Octarians from her. From the different factions of the Octarian army, to the different Octarian weapons and their weaknesses. He also learned about Ora's Octoling friends, a group of Octolings that she had trained with who believed the same thing as her about the Octarian army: they were unnaturally cruel to their soldiers. Ora was merely the only one brave, or foolish, enough to try and run away.

Every thing Ora told Jace, he relayed it to Cap'n Cuttlefish, who would ask Jace's opinion on whether it was truth or lie. Jace's answer was always the same, "She has no reason to lie, and that's why I believe her." To which the Cap'n would always reply, "Keep a careful eye on her, Jace, and keep telling me the information. There may just yet be reason for us to believe her as well as you do." He seemed to hold on to hope that this Octoling could be the key to keeping the Octarians at bay.

In the classes, Jace progressed well and learned where him and his friends stood in terms of skill. For himself, his .52 Gal kept the enemies at range, so he stayed on elevation behind the battle but in front of chargers where he could provide easy support fire for his team and strategic advice. Celine, on the other hand, used her slim and fast build to be on the front lines and not get hit. She was adept at luring people into Jace's traps, but fail at creating her own traps while on the fly. Ora, as Jace learned, was better with a gun than anybody else in the whole academy. She was able to consistently shoot any target at any distance, but she lacks any creativity or adroit movement.

Celine, Azure, and Ora became good friends, sitting together at lunch or shooting at the same target, the three of them were very close. And that's what Jace had planned on for today.

Two sharp raps on the door brought his attention there, and he called out.

"It's open."

The door practically burst off its hinges as Azure and Celine ran into the room.

"Hi Celine, Azure." Jace told the two, standing up and welcoming them in.

"So this is what your house looks like." Azure said, "I always thought that you lived kind of slobby, but this place is immaculate."

Jace looked at her with annoyance, "Why'd ya think I lived like a slob?"

"Ah, no reason."

Azure developed an interest in her shoes. Jace let that sink in for a little bit before explaining why they were here.

"Hey, Ora. Do you want to hang around with Celine and Azure for the day? I'm pretty sure that you three can find something to do."

Ora didn't need to answer, her facial expression said enough, but she answered Jace anyway. "Uhhh, are you kidding me? Of course. I'd love to hang out with them. Constantly having to be around you does get a little tiring after a while."

Throughout the last two weeks Ora had not left Jace's side, going anywhere he was going.

"Good," Jace said. "So, I'm going to go to the turf wars arenas, you guys have fun." And with that, Jace picked up his plate, cleaned it off in the sink, grabbed his gun, and left the three girls there.

"So what do you girls want to do?" Celine asked the other two, Azure eyed Ora's goggles and black spandex.

"I think that I know what we should do today." Azure said, "we need to take you out shopping." She pointed at Ora, Ora merely looked at herself and asked: "Me?" Azure sighed, "yes you. You can't keep going around in that black spandex the whole time you're here. You need something other than that."

"But I'm an Octoling, this is standard uniform in the Octaria-"

Celine stopped Ora before she could get far, holding up a hand as she backed up Azure's statement, "Ah, nope, no more. You aren't in the Octarian armies anymore. You're around us Inklings, and you can dress however you want, especially if you want to dress better than a uniform that somebody with no fashion sense made."

"But-"

Ora couldn't say much before Azure and Celine took her arms in theirs and frog marched her out of Jace's house and along the road to the center plaza.

* * *

 _I wonder what the girls are doing,_ Jace was wondering in the middle of a match, _I hope that their doing just fine, maybe watching TV or something._

His skills had far surpassed anybody else's there, Jace could eliminate any number of squids without being shot once. His .52 Gal was a wrecking ball in the enemy teams and so far he had not lost.

 _I really do hope that they aren't doing anything insane. Freaking girls._

* * *

"This is insane." Ora told her two friends when they held up the outfit.

"You two are insane." Ora told her two friends as they forced her into a changing room to try on the outfit.

"I'm going insane." Ora told her two friends as the three of them looked at Ora's new look in the mirror. Unfortunately, they had to agree, it just didn't go with Ora's look. So they went back to the drawing boards on the outfit.

Thankfully Jelonzo had known Celine and Azure long before they brought in Ora, so he allowed them to keep trying whatever outfits he had in stock. They'd already bought Ora a new pair of shoes, blue moto boots with pink trim, and all that was left was her outfit. Ora kept trying to explain how nothing was going to go with her because of something the other two didn't really notice, but they just kept plowing on with trying on every single outfit in the whole store.

This went on for an easy two hours before Ora finally was able to say something about why none of the outfits were actually doing anything.

"Hey, uh, you never really looked at what I'm wearing still." She pointed to the goggles that she was wearing. "These things."

Azure and Celine looked at Ora's face.

"Crap." Azure said, "You're right, those don't go with anything. Do you mind if we take those off?"

"No!"

Ora backed up, holding onto her goggles.

"Why not?" Celine asked, "What do they do?"

"These are standard issue for the Octarian army, they include sights and a heads up display that can show you angles of shots and how to improve. I don't ever use those features, though, as they get in the way of my vision. The only reason I still wear these, is that my eyes are sensitive, they really really hurt in the light. It was a few mornings ago when I tried to take them off in my room, but the sun was shining through the window and I could feel my eyes practically burning. I'm not going to take these off."

While she was talking, she didn't notice Azure go around behind her and unclip the goggles. Not until too late that is, when the goggles fell from her face into her hands.

A scream split the air, Ora's own pain personified in the shriek that could crack glass.

Azure and Celine held their hands over their ears, and looked at each other. Azure mouthed to Celine _"What do we do?"_ but Celine had no answer... until she saw a rack of them to the side.

Ora could feel her eyes burn, it was like somebody had stuck a flaming spear into her skull. She'd never seen something this bright before, the light streaming through windows and coming from lightbulbs, and it hurt so badly. Then somebody jammed something onto her face and the pain lessened to a bearable throb. She opened her eyes from where her lids were fully shut, and she looked through shade.

"Wha-?" Ora asked, "What are these?"

Celine breathed a sigh of relief, and motioned for Jelonzo to go back to the other things he was doing as he had run over thinking that he needed to help. "They're sunglasses, shades. They keep the sun from hurting your eyes."

"They, they do that?"

"Yes, now let's go find something that goes with those sunglasses. I don't think you can see the colors from there, so let me get a mirror."

And get a mirror they did, Ora looked at her face without the goggles on. She'd never been without her goggles on, it was unheard of in the Octarian army, and for good reason too if the light hurt so much.

The shades were pink, with little electric bolts of blue etching their way on the sides... something Ora had never seen on her face. She could even see her eyes now, another thing Ora had never seen on her face. Years of life, and never saw her eyes until now but she realized how vibrant the eyes were.

After that, each outfit seemed to only enhance how she expressed herself, it was even hard to decide on what to get. But with Celine and Azure's help they finally bought something.

* * *

Jace could feel them breathing down his back, he knew they were somewhere around here. He walked down the small hallway in the building, gun held out in front ready to destroy anybody he saw. It was slow going as there were many crevasses in the walls that could allow enemies to hide.

He walked outside and back into the sunlight, blinking to get adjusted to the light, and out of nowhere the entire enemy team bore down on him.

They thundered down the ramp to his right with guns blazing ink trails in the sun. Jace saw them there and retreated back into the building, letting the ink splash where he was moments ago. He shot straight out, letting the ink spill onto the wall across the ramp, and readied himself and his weapons. He slid a small object out of his pocket and filled it, then left it inside.

The toe of an enemy inkling appear around the corner.

NOW!

Jace jumped out of the cover and rolled in front of the inklings, they were taken by surprise, their shots going above his head. The roll's momentum took him into the wall he inked up and he went into squid form and slid along the side. The enemy inklings painted right behind him, but no ink landed on Jace as he stayed slightly ahead of the shots.

He reached the end of the ink and rolled out of the squid form, dropping a killer wail behind him as he did so. The enemy inklings saw the Wail and ran into the building, straight into the bomb he'd left them before. The bomb blew up, and up on the alert board it showed four messages with Jace being the killer on each.

The game was over.

Jace wandered back past his team, who were mindlessly inking the ground up elsewhere, and visited the betting stands to get his cuts of the spectator money. As he walked away from there to head back to his home and, hopefully, to the girls, three girls walked up and got his attention by waving. He recognized Celine and Azure instantly, but the girl between them he had now idea who it was.

She was dressed in a green zipped hoodie, with pink and blue shades, the shoes matching the color of the shades and the green bringing out the vibrant green Jace saw under the glasses. The girl was completely new to Jace, but the hair gave her away. It was Ora's hair.

Jace stared with his mouth open.

"Hi Jace!" The girl said cheerfully.

"Ora?" He said tentatively, "Is that you?"

"Yeah! This is what we did today."

"Wow, I didn't recognize you for a second, you look great!"

"Thank you." Ora told him. "How did your matches go?"

Jace shrugged, "I won every one of them without getting hit once. I think the Splat Academy is working, but that doesn't matter. Did you two help her with this?" He pointed at Celine and Azure, who nodded smugly.

"Well I owe all of you a five star dinner tonight. Who's up for some homemade macaroni and cheese?"

Celine nodded furiously as she'd had Jace's six cheese macaroni and cheese before and realized that it was practically from heaven, Ora and Azure, on the other hand, merely wondered how good it would be.

They weren't dissapointed. And as Ora set her glasses up on a bedstand and got out of her clothes, she was full, and satisfied in more ways than one. Inklings really weren't what Octavio had told the army, a relief in and of itself. And her friends were the best she could possibly hope for, _though_ , as she thought, _Celine really is way too violent for her own good. Maybe I'll talk to her tomorrow about not shooting Jace every three seconds._


	12. Behind lines

"Cap'n Cuttlefish, I need to talk to you. It's about Ora."

Cuttlefish looked up from his desk, and his paperwork, to see Jace standing in the doorway. It was early and no other squids had arrived yet, save for Cuttlefish and his three agents; but now that Jace was here, Ora shouldn't be too far away. But Cuttlefish dismissed any worry he had about that instantly, Ora wouldn't do anything.

"Yes, Jace?" He said, "What can I do for you, Bucko?"

"Sir, it's been a month since Ora has arrived at our doorstep. Do you trust her yet?"

The question surprised Cap'n Cuttlefish, he hadn't expected such a direct approach from Jace. Jace even saw the surprise on Cuttlefish's face, though it left just as quick as it arrived.

"Well," Cuttlefish paused to think for a moment. He looked to a wall that had a ap of the Octo Valley on it. The map had grown massive over the last month with new additions coming from their Octarian friend and new areas were fully mapped out to reveal spots that not even Agent 3 had gone to, despite having explored the valley for a while now. Ora had even pointed out where Octarian camps were located, and assisted in the scouting mission Cuttlefish had sent out to confirm the locations and strengths of the camps.

"Yes I do, Jace. She's proven herself more than once, helping us despite all the hatred she's been shown by some of the other squids." Cuttlefish held up a hand as he saw Jace's mouth open, they'd had that conversation before. "And I can't stop them from discriminating against her. There's way too many political problems with that, and even if I forced them to stop they'd just harbor harsher resentment for her and continue to discriminate twice over. But yes, I trust her."

Jace nodded and marched over to the wall map. He pointed to a specific camp that hadn't been confirmed by the scout teams due to its location behind Octarian defenses. Ora had told him about it weeks ago when she told him about her friends. It was the training camp for elite soldiers of the Octarian army: the Octarians.

"I've told you every speck of information that Ora's given to me. This is an Octarian camp used to train Octolings, and Ora had a group of friends here who thought as she did. They believe that the Octarian army is corrupt in their leadership. They were treated badly and were not allowed any portion of freedom. Ora was the only one who had the guts to try and escape."

Cuttlefish nodded, Ora had told him that personally when she was over for a map making meeting. Jace continued.

"I want to lead a rescue attempt to collect them and bring them to the academy. I'd take Ora, Celine, and two other inklings with me in the attempt. Ora can convince her friends to come; I've already told her about this plan and she believes that it's possible. If this," Jace gestured to the map, "Is what one Octoling can do, imagine what three more can do. I will take full responsibility for the other three Octolings, doing the same as what I did with Ora."

Cuttlefish sat in silence for a minute, his beard twitched as his mind raced. Finally, he nodded, "Who do you want as the other two squids?"

"Callie and Marie. Celine and I have been training as a two person team with them for a while now and I've gotten to know them well. They're fast and work well as a group, I'd trust them to help with this."

Cuttlefish seemed to accept that, "What time do you want to do this?"

"Tonight, it's a lunar eclipse so there'll be a greater darkness. We can eat a small dinner here and move out as the sun sets. We'd reach the Octarian lines by the time the moon would be out, but it would be pitch black. We'd sneak by the lines and move to the training camp, Ora will guide us to her friends and we will escort them out of the camp in silence. Though if we get into any trouble and are forced to run for our lives, I would appreciate having a little bit of backup be ready in case we need them."

Cap'n Cuttlefish went back to his paperwork, "I'll pull a team together from the debriefing today. You can meet with me after that and I'll give you some supplies for the task."

Jace smiled, "Thank you, sir." and he walked back outside. Ora was waiting outside the door with her fingers crossed. When Jace left the office she looked up pleadingly.

"Is it-?"

"We're good for tonight. You'll have your friends in safety by morning."

Ora jumped up, excitement bubbling over her. The sunglasses on her face shook precariously as she jumped in the air, so she stopped, but a smile was ever present on her features. She wrapped her arms around Jace and squeezed the breath out of him.

"Thank you, Jace!"

* * *

"You want us to do this?" Marie asked Jace when he was done explaining his plan to the Squid Sisters. She looked to Callie and some sort of a silent exchange took place between the two. It took a little bit, but finally they looked back at Jace and nodded together.

"We're in."

* * *

It was getting dark when Jace looked at his small group of friends and allies.

"It's time, let's go."

And they left for the Octarian camps.

"Cuttlefish," Jace spoke into the earpiece the Cap'n had given everybody in this mission, "We're on our way. Are the reinforcements set up?"

Another voice came over the earpiece before Cap'n Cuttlefish could speak, "Yeah man, we've got you." It was the leader of a charger team Cuttlefish had set up along the roof of one of the platforms overlooking both the edge of the Octarian camps and the Splat Academy. There were four people, all with powerful ranged snipers, and they were all watching for any sign of trouble.

"Excellent. We're beginning our approach from the Academy. Watch our flanks."

The darkness was excellent that night, no shadows were anywhere while the group sneaked down past deep platforms with Octarian scouts on them. They were completely invisible in the darkness thanks to the black cloaks cuttlefish had lent the whole group, save for Ora, who donned her traditional black spandex and goggles once again. Jace could see the heads up display on the goggles whenever she re-calibrated them for night vision.

At the edge of the first Octarian camps, the Octarians had lights out to catch any intruders, but the lights were far and few which allowed for an easy bypass. Celine's itchy trigger finger almost got them in trouble, as she was raring to go and shoot any Octarians in sight. But Jace held a hand over her gun and whispered that she could blast all she wanted if they got caught.

A sinking feeling told Jace that it wouldn't just be Celine blasting for their lives if they were caught.

The inner camps hadn't been confirmed yet by scouting missions, so Jace whispered once again in his earpiece.

"Cap'n Cuttlefish, we've made contact with the second line of camps. The Octoling camp is in the fourth line, but these haven't been scouted out just yet. We will take note of anything worthwhile."

They made their way around the perimeter of the second line of camps. The lights here were much more powerful, shining bright circles of illumination everywhere they looked. Callie and Marie were both careful not to get seen, but as a light deviated from its path, they were hard pressed to stay out of sight.

"Jace," Callie whispered, "We need to move now, the lights are converging on this spot."

Jace looked and saw all of the lights moving to meet in the middle of where he was, perhaps somebody had seen movement. And he motioned violently for everybody to move. They dropped low and rushed for a break in the light, barely making it past. For a strenuous moment Jace saw that Callie's shoe was caught in the light, but no alarms were set off, they must have thought it to be a rock.

The third line of camps went by without trouble, Jace once again reporting that they did, in fact, exist. But once the group reached the edge of the fourth line of camps, they stopped behind a rocky outcropping on a platform.

"Okay, Ora, you take us in from here. Your job is to lead us straight to your friends and straight out without drawing any attention. Celine, Marie, can you stay out here behind the outcropping to keep an eye on things. Tell me if anything seems wrong, and if we need you, you draw some attention or come in and flank any attackers we have."

The two of them nodded and got comfortable behind the rocks. Jace looked at Ora and Callie, "Let's get going, Ora."

Ora took them into a camp on a platform to the left of the rock platform they left Celine and Marie at. They went underneath, jumping over water from rock to rock poking out of the waves. And when they came to the camp, they where exactly below it. Ora sprayed the side of the platform's supports with her Octarian ink, and leaped into Octopus form to land in her ink and swam up the ink trail.

Jace and Callie did the same from their own supports, and they slowly made their way up the platform to a maintenance hatch on the underside. Ora opened it up and looked out, "Nobody near, hurry."

She led them through the camp, dodging around patrols of Octolings. Each Octoling seemed almost robotic and lacking personality, but that may have been because they were on guard duty at the time. Ora took them to a tent on the far side of the camp, and peered in.

"Guys!" She whispered violently. Jace kept watch outside of the tent, watching for lights and patrols with Callie while Ora told her friends that they needed to go. Jace listened to the conversation.

"Ora?" A male voice said from inside, "Is that really you?"

"Yes it's me," Ora whispered back, "Now listen carefully. You need to come with me, I've got a place we can stay in that's out of the Octarian's reach. It's safe. We can go."

"They said you were killed by the inklings." A girl voice then said from the tent, "You're still alive?"

"Yes, I'm alive." Ora's whispers got more violent, "Now we need to go."

A series of whispers came from inside the tent, Ora had told them about her three friends, and how she could convince them to go. But Jace's confidence fled at the first sign of their whispers.

"Ora, what's going on?" He whispered, gun held up in case of attack.

"Just give me a few seconds." She whispered back, then addressed her friends again. "We'll only have one shot at actually leaving. We go now, or not at all."

The whispers from Ora's friends stopped. They reached a decision.

"Okay." The male voice said again, "Let us get our weapons first." There was a shuffling from inside the tent, then three Octolings exited. Each was wearing their black spandex and goggles, two guys and one girl. When they saw Callie and Jace they pointed their guns at them, but Ora got in their way.

"Hey, these guys are here to help. They're my friends. They've kept me safe for a month now. You can trust them."

"Can we?" The male said, "They're inklings, the creatures that banished us here a hundred years ago and prevented our return two months ago. Ora you can't really think that they're good, can you." He kept his gun focused on Jace's head, but Jace paid him no heed, instead speaking directly to Ora.

"Ora, it's time for us to go. Same way out?"

"No, we'll be taking the upper way, there's a cable car that leads to the next platform. It'll be tough to not be seen, but the bottom route is not an option."

Jace nodded and moved forward, Callie followed his lead. Ora took one look at her friends and followed with her own gun held out. Ora's male friend sighed and gripped his head, then motioned for everybody to move out. He was the leader of them.

They made their way to the cable car, which was all the way across the platform, but as they moved Ora motioned for everybody to stop.

"This is the commander's tent. It looks as if he's in there."

Shadows were indeed flashing in front of lights in the tent, but Jace thought Ora was wrong. A commander looking person was just leaving the tent as Ora turned around to tell the group about the tent, and it looked as if he was just as surprised to see them as they were to see him.

"Oh... I do think that we have company." He spoke inwards to his tent, there must have been somebody else in there. "Ora, our little... deserter." He rolled that word around his tongue for a bit like it was the worst insult he could come up with.

"And who are these. Inklings I see, and your old squad? I thought better of you Ora, when you desert you can _never_ come back. Unless, of course, you have a death wish!"

And with that he pulled out an Octoling gun from his belt and fired at Ora. Both shots hit her in the shoulder, and the Octarian ink that should have been harmless left her screaming in pain. Jace opened fire with his .52 Gal, but the commander ducked underneath the shots and backhanded Jace.

Jace felt the stinging blow and he backed up, firing as he did. The commander went back into his tent, ignoring both the salvo from Jace and Callie. From inside the tent the group heard, "I think that it's time that we began the plan. And let's start by killing these deserters!"

Alarms blared.

The group ran, Ora holding her shoulder as she did so with them.

"Reinforcements!" Jace shouted into his earpiece, "We've been found out. We've got the Octolings and we're returning, but that backup might be some helpful cover fire. So help me if you shoot Ora or her friends I will bend your guns and beat your heads off with them!"

They sprinted through the camp, dodging Octolings that were waking up in the middle of the night and running outside with their guns, firing haphazardly from the hip. The shots miraculously went over Jace's head.

The cable car loomed out of nowhere and Jace slammed into the door to open it. Everybody piled in and ducked as another blast of ink went over their heads, and Jace hit the start button. The car lurched and started its climb.

Callie peered over the rail and fired shot after shot of ink into the enemies as they kept trying to arc their shots to hit the car as it climbed up and away, but they were just to far away and their shots fell short. Callie's own shots, however, went straight into the Octolings and caused them to run for cover.

Jace looked at the camp the car was leading to, lights were turning on there and shining at the car.

"Great, now everybody knows that we're here." He said.

The male Octoling leader tapped Jace on the shoulder, "Hey, there's a way to the side of the platform. A few rocks give us the chance to jump away before we're in range. They lead all the way around the platform."

"Excellent, we'll take that. Celine, Marie, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Jace."

"We're taking a roundabout way. Watch the left hand side of the platform, we'll be coming from there. Get ready to run for it."

When the car approached the rocks, Jace got on top of the rail and jumped for it. His knees hit the surface and he bounced, leaving his hands scrabbling for purchase. But he finally found an edge and pulled himself over. The others followed his example, just a little more graceful. They ran from rock to rock, just out of range of the enemy Octarians.

They came around and the Octarians were decimated from a bunch of careful shots from Celine and Marie as they fired from their rock outcropping. Jace help up his hands in recognition, and they joined back up with Celine and Marie.

"We need to move, right now." Jace stressed, "Go. We can make our way past the platforms with the route we took down."

The route they took had Octarians on their tail the whole time, firing at their backs. Any time a little bit of a shot splashed on Jace he felt the burning sensation like it was acid eating through his skin, but they kept going and finally made it back past the first line of camps.

The Octarian force behind them followed swiftly, but the leader soon was a dissolved mess of purple ink as the Inkling snipers started firing.

"Thanks, guys!" Jace breathed heavily into the earpiece, the run had taken its toll.

"Don't mention it. Now you might want to get back to Cuttlefish. You've got a lot to report on."

"Right." And they made their way back to the Splat Academy with three new recruits in tow.


	13. Honored Guests

The charger group held off any adventurous Octarians who thought they could chase after the Inklings into their own territory while Jace and his squad escorted the three Octolings to Cap'n Cuttlefish's office. Jace, Calli, Marie, and Celine kept close eyes on the Octolings as Ora led the way. Before reaching the office door, Jace stopped the group.

He stepped forward in front of the Octolings, "May I please have your weapons? You have to understand that it's a security risk that we can't take right now. I promise that you'll be safe and happy, Ora can attest to that."

The Octolings leader looked to Ora, who nodded to him. He looked down at Jace warily, sizing him up. The Octoling towered over Jace by a whole foot, and was massively stronger than Jace. Jace stared back up, and realized that the Octoling could squish him at any time. The Octoling realized that fact too, and saw no threat in the much smaller Jace, only threat in Jace's .52 Gal. He gave his gun over to Jace's outstretched hand. His companions followed suit, and only then did Jace let Ora open the office door.

"Cap'n, we're back safely." Jace said into the open doorframe.

"Then come in already, What're you doing? Waiting for a written invitation?" The cap'n called back, chuckling from his joke.

The group filed into the room, the Octolings in the center with their Inkling rescuers surrounding them. cuttlefish looked at his new guests with interest and the Octoling leader stepped forward to address him.

"I am the leader of Octarian Special Operations unit, designation one-three-three-seven-two-five. My Unit has specializations in-"

"Blah, blah, blah." Cuttlefish interrupted, "What're your names, bucko? I don't need any _unit designation;_ I want to know who you are, not what they made you to be. You're with the Inklings now, we don't hold much for military ceremony. What's your names?"

"I-" the leader stopped for a moment to recover composure from the Cap'n's strange statement, it went against everything he'd grown up with. "I... am Evan. These two are Philip and Crista." He pointed to his male and female Octoling companions in turn. "We were Ora's friends when we were training together in the Octoling army after being drafted at a young age. All four of us never believed in the Octarian army's concepts. They were brutal to us, beating us whenever we did wrong, but never rewarding us after we completed a challenge."

He paused to remember.

"I never believed in fighting. I always thought that peace was a better option. But because of being born into an Octoling family, I was drafted into the army like everybody else my age. I met Philip and Crista in training, then Ora. Philip, Crista, and I shared views on the violence, but Ora always excelled at fighting."

Philip interrupted Evan. "Ora was amazing. She could hit any target from any distance. We thought she should use a charger, but the Octarian command only equips Octolings with Octoshots, wimpy little peashooters. Sorry, Evan. I interrupted again, didn't I."

Evan tried to talk, but the Cap'n spoke before him, "Hey, you're no longer in the Octarian forces. You don't need to stand on formalities. Right, Evan?"

Evan nodded, and continued, "When Ora tried to desert, she first came to us. She wanted us to come with her to the surface, where we wouldn't be beaten for everything. But I was a coward, I made sure that Philip and Crista didn't go with her. I didn't want to see anybody else hurt, especially if they were caught while deserting. I expected Ora to make it out, because of her superior skill, but my cowardice prevented us from seeing if anybody else could leave. Then she came back. With your man over there and his crew." Evan pointed to Jace, "We ran into the commander on the way out, and he shot Ora in the arm. We kept running, and now we're here."

Cap'n Cuttlefish nodded, his beard slightly twitching with the act, and studied the Octolings intensely. Evan was heavy set and with a tough build, nobody would have expected him to be a pacifist. Philip was twitchy and small, always picking at something on his hands or investigating something on the wall, like his energy would overflow at any moment and blow him up. And Crista was impassive, watching the Cap'n almost as intently as he watched her. She was around the same size as Ora, and could have been her twin, if not for the expression on her face: stony silence.

"Do you want to keep the peace up topside?" asked Cuttlefish. Every Octoling nodded.

"Good. You'll live with Jace for now." He motioned to Jace, who nodded to Evan. "He'll take care of you and take responsibility for what you do and what people do to you. If anything happens to you or happens from you, he will take responsibility. You'll be under his command, anything he says, goes. That's understandable, he's taking responsibility, and command, of you for now. If you can be trusted, you will be let free to do your own thing just as Ora was. She went through the exact same circumstances, and I'd trust her with the protection of this Academy."

Evan looked rather happy with the circumstances, he was tired of being the one to take responsibility, let somebody else do that. "Yes. I'm okay with that being that way." He looked to Jace and held out a hand, "It's nice to meet you, Jace. We're in your debt for helping us escape."

"No problem, man." said Jace, shaking the hand, "Anything for Ora or one of her friends. I've had a lot of fun with Ora over the last months, and she's enjoyed it here. I hope that you can do the same."

"First thing that needs to change," Ora interjected into the conversation, "Is your clothes. I walked around in the uniform for a month before changing my clothes, and I'm going to tell you that this is the first thing you need to do. Do you mind if I take them to a late night shop? I think that there's a few that are still open at night." She asked Cuttlefish.

Cap'n Cuttlefish nodded, "Yes. That's fine. But take Celine as well, I need to talk to Jace for a while, go back to his house when you're done. He'll be there."

Ora and Celine walked out, talking with their new guests. Callie and Marie also left, claiming that they needed to get some sleep. And a word from the charger team told Jace that they were packing up as they'd dissuaded any Octarians from sticking their noses too far into Inkling territory.

Once everybody had left, Cuttlefish spoke.

"Jace, I need to know if you came across anything while down in the bases."

Jace nodded and walked over to the wall map. "Well. We've confirmed the bases in rows two through four. They all exist. But there may be something important." Cuttlefish sat up at this, paying close attention to Jace's words. "When the commander of the Octoling forces walked out of his tent. He shot Ora. When it hit her she cried out in pain. His weapon has the capability to hurt Octarians and, I assume, Inklings. He also mentioned something about a plan before hitting the alarms and we had to run. He said that they would begin the plan that night and that they might as well start with killing the deserters, referring to Ora, Evan, Philip, and Crista. I'm worried that this plan has something to do with Inkopolis, he may be planning an attack or something that would harm the squids living up there. Do you have any thoughts, Cap'n?"

"Well. A few months ago, the great zapfish went missing. You, of course, know this. But when Agent 3 went ta recover it, the Octarians were using it ta power massive war devices that could kill many squids. He destroyed those devices and acquired their zapfishes. This was orchestrated by DJ Octavio, the Octarian who resides in the nice little snowglobe outside this room. I believe that this 'plan' is another attack. This one greater than Octavio's. It could be that they may lay siege to Inkopolis or attack something important to our survival. This is all just my hunch, of course, but we must stay on guard."

"Anything that I should do?"

"Gain the trust of Ora's friends. Evan seems like an honest guy, but I didn't like the look of Crista, she seems rather hardened to us. Sort of like she's only following orders. If you need some extra funds, I can lend you some money for food and clothing and other supplies."

Jace shrugged, it was no matter to him. "It's fine, sir, I make plenty of money, thanks to your training. My only worry is that I may not have enough room in my house. There's only one guest room, and Ora currently occupies it. But I'll think of something. Maybe Ora can take my room and I'll sleep on the couch."

"Good, Bucko. Now you might want to get back to your home before the others do. That would be awkward."

He left Cuttlefish to his thoughts, and hopefully some sleep, and went home. He got there before the others, and watched some splat arena highlights for the day before Ora and Celine got back with Evan, Philip, and Crista. Apparently several squids were caught for taking steroids that day, but their performance was admirable. The team of four was completely muscle bound, even the girls on the team, and were able to take on any other team in their way... save for Ray's team when he was out practicing. Jace recognized Ray right away. He also recognized Azure on Ray's team, they must've fought together that day.

The T.V. was just getting to a top ten plays when a knock on the door brought Jace's attention. It was the other squids back from shopping, and when Ora walked in her eyes gleamed bright green as the sun glasses were hooked on her hoodie.

"Hey, Jace." She said, Making way for her friends. Evan was decked out in a leather jacket and jeans, accentuating the muscles while betraying his pacifist side. Philip was in a tee-shirt and shorts, constantly fidgeting with them like he'd had too much sugar. And Crista walked in wearing a black hoodie with black shorts and a pair of black shoes, basically a walking shadow. They all had lost their goggles in favor for sunglasses, apparently all Octolings had vibrant eyes, as their eyes were about as bright as a light bulb. Celine waved from outside and went to her own place.

Evan looked around the room, "Nice place. Definitely nicer than that drafty old tent that we had to sleep in in the army. Where should we stay?"

Jace thought for a moment before answering.

"Well, I was thinking that Ora and Crista could sleep in my room, while you and Philip take the guest bed-room. I'll sleep down here on the couch, I've done it enough already while watching late night highlights on the T.V."

An idea came to Jace while he was talking.

"Hey, Evan."

"Yeah?"

"Well. According to Azure, you never had good food in the Octarian armies. Apparently it was inedible."

Crista nodded for Evan shyly, "It was horrible. I never ate like that when I was growing up, but the army officers said that's what we had earned. It was like biting down on rocks most days. And when you could eat it, it tasted like you were eating your own ink, disgusting."

Evan seemed surprised at Crista's talking. He stared at her in some sort of shock, and Philip did the same, Ora even looked at her with a bit of surprise. Jace didn't bother with this, though, as he was already in his kitchen grabbing ingredients to make a midnight snack for the Octolings that had missed out on food for so long. He cooked for only ten minutes, but as he set the dish down in front of them, their mouths were watering as if you'd taken a sponge and squeezed it.

Crista looked as if she'd tear the meal apart in seconds, and when Jace looked up from cutting off the first bite of his portion, she was already asking Ora if all meals were this good. Ora smiled and informed her that, yes, all meals were that good. Crista's performance reminded Jace of the first day he'd cooked for Ora, she'd done the same.

The others were just as hungry, and the meal was polished off in minutes while Ora and Jace were still enjoying their pieces of it. Jace motioned to the pan he cooked in, "Looks like I cooked seconds for a reason."

That earned him thanks for the whole rest of the day from Crista, Evan, and Philip. And he curled up on the couch proud of his cooking, listening to content snores from his master bedroom and guest room.


	14. To Ammo Knights

Breakfast was a silent affair, mostly because Ora's friends were eating so much that they couldn't talk. But while helping Jace clear away the dishes, Ora dropped a plate with a clatter. It rattled on the ground, but didn't break. Jace looked at her while she picked it up, and she shrugged, then winced from the action.

"What's wrong?" Jace asked.

"Shoulder hurts. The spot that the Commander shot yesterday."

That was troubling to Jace. The Commander seemed to be using Octarian ink, it shouldn't have hurt Ora. Yet she yelled in pain last night when she was shot, and the hit point was apparently still painful this morning.

"Let's have Callie or Marie look at the hit when we get to the academy. It just glanced off you, so it shouldn't have done that much damage to you." Said Jace, "But this doesn't really make sense, why would Octarian ink hurt you, Ora, you're an Octoling?"

Evan swallowed down a mouthful of his breakfast and cleared his throat. Jace turned to look at him.

"Yes, Evan?"

"Well, there could be a slight problem."

He explained. By the end of the explanation, Jace was getting his gun and handing Ora her own weapon, then hustling everybody out the door so they could go to the Academy.

"I wasn't done with breakfast!" Philip said as they left. He had some coffee, which Jace didn't know if that would do anything to his energy level, but it didn't seem to do anything to lessen the hyper-activity of Philip.

Jace hurried everybody down to the pipe, and got them down.

Thankfully the pipe had been lined with wood and other flooring, so that Ora could make it to the Academy without hurting herself. Evan, Philip, and Crista seemed to appreciate it as they weren't up to their knees in Inkling ink and their legs weren't burned off at the joints.

They got down to the Academy and Jace rushed everyone inwards and to the medical rooms to get a first aid kit. Jace frantically opened it, remembering what Evan told him.

 _"Yeah, about that. The Commander ordered us to fill our weapons with a new mixture of ink after Ora ran away. It was a mixture of water and ink. He told us that we no longer were allowed to swim in our own ink as it would kill us, he also told us that if anyone else was found outside of the camp after hours we were to shoot them immediately."_

Jace grabbed the anti-acid and cleaned out Ora's shoulder wound. It may only have been a glancing wound, but as Jace could see, the water content of the ink was still digging its way through her shoulder. Her shoulder was incredibly weakened, Jace could see almost a whole half inch into her body where the water touched.

"Why didn't you tell us that it hurt."

"Because it didn't hurt. It was only a little bit tingly."

Jace sighed, "Why didn't you check the wound?" He asked exasperatedly.

"I didn't feel anything there. Why would I have any thought to check it?"

The door to the medical room opened and Callie walked in. She stared at everybody. Jace didn't bother with her at the moment as he was applying the anti-acid to Ora's shoulder.

"What happened?" Callie asked, recognizing the anti-acid in Jace's hand.

"Water was in the ink she was hit with yesterday. I'm cleaning it out before it eats to her bones."

Callie looked at what he was doing and grabbed the first-aid kit out of his hand to start applying the anti-acid herself. "This needs a little more delicate touch than a guy."

Once she was done, she ordered Ora to stay in the medical room and wait until they get back. Ora gladly complied, letting her arm hang limply at her side. Jace looked at Evan, and saw that he looked like he would be sick due to the fact that they could see almost to Ora's bone. Philip didn't look too bad, he was pacing the room, but Crista also looked like she'd be sick. Maybe these Octolings were more pacifist for a reason.

Callie showed them where the restrooms were, and Evan went in right away. Jace heard retching from there not too long after. Crista held her stomach, but only barely.

When Evan came back out, Callie mentioned to Jace that they shouldn't move Ora from the medical room until the end of the school day. She also mentioned to Evan, Philip, and Crista that they can either wait in the office, or choose to go with Jace to the classes. Evan looked at Crista and Philip, and then shrugged.

"I'll go to the office and wait. I need to sit down for a while." He gripped his stomach as nausea passed over him again. Crista and Philip both chose to go to the classes, they were curious. Callie offered to take Evan to the office for him to wait there, then told Jace that he should get Ora and come to the office at the end of the day, and that there was something they needed to do.

The classes went along fine, Celine seemed to enjoy talking to Philip and Crista, and introduced Philip to Eddie and Crista to Azure. Jace thought that the conflicting personalities wouldn't exactly fit for a conversation, but instead they seemed to enjoy each other's company. Eddie and Philip got along well, with Philip doing most of the talking and Eddie staring at him in amazement that somebody could have that much energy to talk.

At the end of the day, Jace dropped off Philip and Crista with Evan and went to the Medical Room to get Ora, who he discovered was sleeping peacefully. He nudged her arm, and Ora woke up and smiled.

"What's going on, Jace?" She asked sleepily.

"Callie wants to see us. She said that there was something we needed to do together."

He helped Ora to her feet and she yawned and stretched. Jace was glad to notice that when she stretched there was no pain or strain in the movement, even though Ora's shoulder was bandaged up.

Evan, Philip, and Crista were patiently waiting there for Jace and Ora. They were talking about the things Philip and Crista had learned that day in the lessons. Evan got up when he saw Jace walk in, but Jace waved him back down. Callie was in Cap'n Cuttlefish's office, the Cap'n organizing a scouting mission downstairs with a few good squids.

"Hi, Ora, how are you feeling?" Callie asked in concern.

"Much better now."

Ora smiled and hugged Callie. Then backed off, "Well, are you up for a little excursion tonight?"

Ora's interest was piqued, "An... excursion?" She asked, "What do you mean by that?" Callie opened up a file cabinet and grabbed a folder to give it to Ora, who looked at it with reserved opinion.

"Ammo Knights blueprints? Isn't this a store in the plaza? That high-end weapon shop with the nerdy crab running it?"

"Yes." Callie told her, "Sheldon's an old friend of Marie and I, he's supplied many weapons for us in the past and for the Academy. Here's my idea: according to Evan and his companions, the Octarian ink is now filled with a mixture of ink and water. This means that it can hurt both Inkling and Octarian. And water seems to be more effective than ink at piercing, so compound that effect with the Octarian's ink and they now have an extremely powerful asset. . . and an extremely powerful disadvantage. They're no longer able to swim in their own ink, but if we're hit, it'll definitely leave a big mark. That's why I want us to go to Ammo Knights and have Sheldon make us a little something that might nullify their ink a little bit. Armor."

Jace liked the sound of that, but he remembered seeing Agent 3 in some sort of armor the day that they met on the rooftops.

"But don't you, Marie, and Agent 3 have armor? And can't we use that?"

Callie shrugged, "yeah, we have the Hero's armor. But there's only one set of that, Agent 3's, it was a hand-me-down from Marie and myself after we had no real use for it anymore. But the hero's armor is only for Agent 3, we need something that can be used by any inklings in the Academy, and can be mass produced with maybe a little bit more defense towards water, as that's the only thing the Hero armor can't provide higher defense against. Ink, that's easy, water is much harder to defend against. But we have some old designs for some sort of an underwater based suit, and the designs for the hero's armor, Marie and I got the weapon mod group of squids to work on modifying the blueprints so that the suit can protect against water better. It won't be as good as the original Hero's armor in sense of ink, but water would wash off easier, and it would be easier to produce in mass."

"Then what do you want us to do?" asked Ora.

"I want you two to come with me to Ammo Knights. I've already talked to Sheldon, and he wants to see the two of you because I told him how you were shot yesterday. I don't know why he wants to, but he's also said that it may be bad for business if squids see an Octarian come into his building, so we're going to need to sneak in at night."

Jace nodded, armor sounded good to him. But he'd not met Sheldon yet, he was never good enough to get into Ammo Knights, he'd always gotten his guns from other shops that weren't as good. He remembered showing Ora the shop, but didn't go in as they needed to get to the arena and watch one of Celine's battles.

They got a time set for when they'd get together to sneak in at night, and Jace and Ora left with Evan, Philip, and Crista in tow. Evan asked what was going on, and Jace explained the gist of it, then asked if they were okay with being at the Academy that night.

"Yeah, we can wait there. Marie came and visited me a few times when I was there today, I'm fine with waiting again, this time with friends." He looked like Crista and Philip, "What about you guys? Are you okay with waiting with me?"

The two of them agreed, Crista saying that she'd really like to see the armor when they get back.

And so they waited for night to fall the second night in a row.

As night fell, Jace, Ora, and Callie left the Academy and went up the pipe to the plaza. It was nearly pitch black from the lunar eclipse yesterday, lights being the only illumination for the several squids that were still out and about to eat and have fun. Jace peeked up from the pipe, seeing nobody around, and opened up the manhole for the others to pass up from.

They got out and snuck around the back ways, over the fence dividing the manhole cover from the outer streets, and climbing up the wall dividing the streets from the shops. It was easy for Jace and Ora, using the skills they were taught in Marie's advanced movement class.

The roof of Ammo Knights was, in short, filthy. Sheldon apparently needed somebody to come up here and clean once in a while; otherwise, if the wind ever picked up, it would rain down dirt like nobody's business.

Jace crawled along behind Callie, who led them to a small skylight and flicked out a small tool to pry it open. She yanked the skylight up, and held it open for Jace and Ora to drop in. They did so, landing lightly on their feet, Callie right behind them.

The shop was dark. No lights were on at all, and Jace let his eyes adjust for a moment. Once he could see in the darkness, he saw a shadow, darker than the others, standing behind the counter. It reached under the counter and pulled out a small cylinder, a flashlight.

"Hello, Callie, is that you?" The shadow said, flicking on the light to reveal Jace, Callie, and Ora. "And you seem to have brought company."

The shadow turned the light around to reveal himself.

"Hi, Sheldon." Callie said as the crab's features were revealed, "How are you?"

"Doing just fine. Well, you're looking fresh." Sheldon said as he saw Jace and Ora. "I heard that you two had a spot of trouble with some sort of water? Callie told me that there were some sets of armor needed." The crab walked around the counter and pulled Callie aside, whispering a question.

Callie nodded.

"Well then, that's good. Means I don't have to watch my mouth, now do I?" Sheldon smiled, "You two are from the Splat Academy. Don't worry." He said as Jace's surprise was evident, "I've worked with Cuttlefish before. My Grandpappy was on the original Squidbeak Splatoon run by Cap'n Cuttlefish, he's used my wares for weapons in the Academy since he started it. In fact, I helped fund the materials they needed to build the Academy. Now, you mentioned something about armor for every inkling in the Academy?"

"Yes," said Callie, "Forty sets should do for any time we're needed to fight."

"F-Forty!" Sheldon squealed out, "I'm heavily discounting you guys. But are you sure that you can pay for forty custom sets of armor designed to protect against water of all things?"

Callie smiled mysteriously, "Yeah." She told the flustered crab, "And we also have a blueprint that you can use for these suits. How much would forty suits cost?" Callie pulled out the blueprint from her pocket, and handed it to Sheldon. He looked at the blueprint carefully, taking in every detail.

"Four hundred thousand and I can throw in a little something extra for you, Marie, and your two friends there. Custom made suits perhaps?"

Jace couldn't believe the cost, but Callie didn't even blink, she just shook Sheldon's hand, "Deal. Thanks for the fair price."

Jace sputtered, "Fair price? That's more than I've ever made in my life! Are you sure that this is a good deal?"

The Squid Sister shook her head at Jace, "Yes. We aren't completely broke at the Academy. Jay has given us some of his earnings from every tournament he's ever participated in, and whenever a major tournament is won by one of our trained teams, they allow us to have a small portion of it. So don't worry, we have more than enough for this."

Sheldon put the blueprint in his pocket and rubbed his hands together, "Excellent. You can expect me to have these done by a week. Also," he said questioningly to Jace and Ora, "What would you like for the special features of your specially made suits?"

Ora shrugged, "Something cool?" And Jace was forced to agree with her, he didn't know what Sheldon was planning, "Just make it something useful, I don't know what you can do to these suits. All I care about, is that we're protected from the Octarians. Surprise me."

That seemed to brighten up Sheldon's smile. "Oooh, now this should be fun." He said, rushing into the back room to start instantly. "Thanks for coming!" his voice called out, "Come again!"

"So." Callie told Jace and Ora, "That went well."

Jace and Ora had plenty to tell Evan, Philip, and Crista when they were walking back to Jace's house. The talk was interesting, to say the least. And the next week was no different, they impatiently waited for the suits to be ready. But when they were ready, Callie told Jace and Ora right away. They were to sneak back in that night as well, and leave with some fresh protection.

A/N: Dear God, this was so late. And I'm extremely sorry for the delay. As most of you know, I upload a chapter to Splaticide every thursday, but this week has been... strenuous. I lost a friend this week to his illness, so I wasn't able to type for a few days, otherwise I think in my sadness i might've had somebody die off in the story, which wouldn't be a good idea. Especially if I kill of Callie or Marie, you guys would probably be banging on my door with torches and pitchforks. But I want to thank zIvyz, who has kept me on task for a while now, and has also been standing by my side to write this since the beginning. Here's a shoutout to you. Overall, I want to know what you guys are thinking of the story, what I could be doing better, what I did well. Tell me. I love to hear what you guys have to say, and I read every comment and PM. So if you have any ideas for the story, don't hesitate to put down a comment saying it, I'd definitely respond and talk to you about the idea. And As Always: **Have A Great Day! Dlahm out.**


	15. The suits

In Jace's taste, there was way too much waiting for the suits. The day the suits were supposed to be ready seemed to take forever. Each class took twice as long as normal, and it didn't help that he couldn't focus on the classes. Just the thought of having a specialized suit of armor made for him by the owner of Ammo Knights gave a little buzz to his nerves.

"Hey, Jace, it's your turn." Marie called out from the ground of the classroom, "Go already!"

It was still the first period, Jace sighed, why couldn't time move faster when you're expecting something instead of the other way around.

He jumped from the platform high in the air and landed lightly into a roll. He sprinted out of the roll, running to a nearby wall to go up it five feet and push off of it into a flip.

The bell rang as he hit the ground, but Marie made him finish the obstacle course before he could go to the next class, firing range.

Agent 3 was wearing his Hero's armor when teaching class that day. Most of Jace's classmates were confused on why he was doing that, but Agent 3 had an explanation.

"Why don't we get a little accuracy practice, everybody grab a charger from the weapon wall." Agent 3 said once class was underway. "I'm going to be running around the target field, trying my best to shoot all of you. Your job is to nail me with your chargers before I can hit all of you." He gestured for the class to grab the gear and then walked out into the middle of the shooting field and hid behind a box.

Jace grabbed the first charger he could, an E-liter 3k. There weren't enough chargers for everybody, so Celine and Ora teamed up with him on the E-liter and walked up with him to the charger's perch.

The charger's perch the class used for practice was up a staircase on the right hand side of the room. From there, anybody could see the entire room; minus the areas behind cover or in buildings, which was where Agent 3 was hiding when he yelled out "Begin!".

Every charger on the perch immediately opened fire on the cover, splashing it with multicolored ink, but not doing anything to the inkling behind it. Ink sloshed everywhere, except for behind it. As the chargers went to reload, Agent 3 jumped out from behind his cover and nailed two squids in between their eyes before the others learned to keep their heads down when reloading.

Jace handed off the gun to Celine, who immediately rushed down to the other end of the perch and loaded up a shot and prepared to fire.

She was an easy target for Agent 3, who shot her before she could even get a blast off.

Celine tossed the gun back to Jace, and went to sulk behind him, mumbling something about no time to aim. Jace didn't take time to aim, he saw what happened to Celine and just popped up to release an uncharged shot at Agent 3, who easily dodged. Agent 3 dove out of the way of several other shots, and returned fire, hitting a few other squids.

Ora took the gun from Jace and set herself up on the end of the perch with her eye to the sight.

Agent 3 noticed her taking aim and switched up his grip to snap to aim at her. His shots sailed over her shoulder as she deftly swayed to the side when he fired, charging her weapon. The trigger was released on the E-liter, and Jace saw the high pressure ink fly out of the barrel to land right at Agent 3's feet when he jumped backwards. Ink splattered onto his shoes.

Ora let Jace shoot the rest of the time, she already beat this little game, and Agent 3 knew it. He assigned everybody homework to fight in four battles of turf war with a charger before the next day, except for those using E-liter number twelve, which was Jace, Celine, and Ora's. Nobody else was able to hit him in that time.

In strategy class, Callie kept shooting Ora and Jace looks.

"I need to talk to you two in the hallway." Callie whispered in Ora and Jace's ears while they worked on a problem. They made an excuse to Celine, who was forced to work on the problem alone. The problem itself was about who would win in a fight, it delivered an explanation on the two squids and their gear, along with the the map and locations of the squids. They were all relatively easy, all someone needed was the weapon specs and locations, after that it was easy to determine who would win the one on one match.

Jace and Ora walked outside the classroom, following Callie.

"So, I'm going to need you two to come back here again after dark. We've got to sneak back into Ammo Knights and pick up the suits. Sheldon told me that they would be easy to carry them, but I'd need you two to be there again for help." Said Callie.

"I'm fine with doing this again, I can't wait to see what the suits are like." Ora told her. Jace agreed with that, "I can hardly wait either." He said.

For once in life, and most likely reality, class actually seemed to speed up after that. Not taking around what felt like four hours to complete, rushing by in a matter of minutes as Jace, Ora, and Celine worked on the problems.

"So, are you doing anything tonight?" Celine asked Jace cheerfully before they left, "I was wondering if you'd want to get a bite to eat?"

The blank stare of a cornered male spread on Jace's face.

"I... uh. I'm, already busy? I kind of have some stuff to do for the Academy."

The glare of an angry Celine, something that puts most squids on guard if they ever saw it, spread over Celine's own face. Jace did not want to see it one more time after this, it was scary.

"You'll see tomorrow. You'll like it. It's a nice surprise." Jace laughed cautiously, the laugh grew to nervous as Celine didn't answer, and finally to strained when the glare from Celine continued.

"Okay, bye!"

Jace ran up the pipe as fast as he possibly could, ran back to his house, closed the door, barricaded his room, and waited for the nuclear warfare to begin from his neighbor's house. Surprisingly, though, Celine didn't seem to want to rain fire and brimstone on him that day. That didn't stop Jace's heart from practically stopping when a knock came from the door. He went downstairs and opened it, gun trained on the entrance.

Standing there was Ora, Evan, Philip, and Crista.

"Hey guys. Sorry for leaving you behind, come in, please."

They entered. Jace closed the door behind them with a quick look to Celine's house. To his horror, she was standing outside the door, looking at him. She waved cheerfully. Jace returned it with a half-hearted wave.

Night fell quickly.

"So, are you guys okay with staying here for the night?" Jace asked Evan, "I've got some stuff to do with Ora for the Academy."

"Yeah, sure. What are you doing?"

"Ah, you'll see later. Tomorrow to be exact. Don't worry, it'll be a nice surprise."

"Okay."

* * *

At the Academy, Callie was waiting for Ora and Jace to show up. She made sure that they were okay, then set them out on the same route they took to get to Ammo Knights before. The roof was still incredibly dirty, but the skylight opened easier this time, and Jace, Ora, and Celine dropped lightly to the ground to see Sheldon standing at the desk with a flashlight already on.

"Oh, hello, hello. Hello once again, squids." He said, hardly containing a smile that was lighting up his face brighter than the flashlight could ever. "Boy do I have a surprise for you. You're going to love this."

He grabbed something from below the desk and placed it down on top.

It was pure black, not shiny, but dull to blend in with backgrounds. It was all one armor suit, with pads in certain areas, but overall looking rather thin and unprotected. Sheldon gleamed as he saw them take a look at it.

"This is the suit that most people will be wearing. It is made of a little synthetic something-another that I made myself, I won't tell you the recipe, trade secret from my Grandpappy. But it reflects water like nobody's business, and can withstand plenty of hits from ink as well. Watch!"

Sheldon held up the suit, took a gun from a nearby shelf, a duel squelcher, and begin unleashing the whole tank of ink into the suit. Purple ink sprayed everywhere as he blasted the suit into oblivion. But as the ink settled, there was hardly a stain on the suit.

And from below the desk, Sheldon procured out a vial filled with clear liquid, water. The most acidic substance to inklings and octarians. He uncorked the vial and poured it over the suit. When the water hit the suit, it filled into little grooves and flowed down to the padded areas, which let the water fall uselessly onto the floor. Sheldon grabbed a sponge and carefully sopped the water up so that none touched him.

"What do you think?" He said.

Ora started clapping, "Absolutely phenomenal," she said, "That's going to be incredibly helpful."

Callie agreed with her, "It's one of your best armor suits yet. I'm glad that you're helping us."

"And there's more." Sheldon continued, "You three's special suits."

This was what Jace was really waiting for, and judging from Ora's reaction, so was she. Ora could hardly contain her excitement, her green eyes reflected a sort of manic energy that Jace hadn't seen before in her unless she was fighting.

The first suit out was Callie's. Sheldon held it up for everybody to see it.

It was in Callie's traditional pink and black colors, hard armor with a full helmet and visor for covering the face. The pant legs went all the way down to specially made boots, which had tiny vials of ink on the sides for emergencies. On the back was a tank of ink, but there was something weird. There was a valve over the ink release, meaning it was able to be taken off.

"This suit has the ability to switch between weapons at will." Sheldon announced, showing them the valve. He turned it and released the weapon which was currently attached, a splattershot, then attached a new weapon, a Luna Blaster, to the valve. The splattershot hooked onto a holster at the side, and there was a sheath on the back any rollers.

Jace's jaw dropped.

Sheldon handed the suit to Callie, who took it gingerly, like it was some sort of precious gem that could break at any minute. And then he got out the second suit, Ora's. The suit looked exactly the same as Callie's, just it was in a darker green like Ora's eyes.

"Your suit is something I thought would be fun." Said Sheldon, "See this little pack right here?"

He pointed to a small charger pack on the back, next to the tank of ink with its special valve. The pack was only a few inches across.

"Your suit has special electric receivers built into the limbs, which have tiny fibers in them that can flex. By activating the charger pack, which you must charge electronically before use, you can make the suit move with you, increasing your speed and reaction time. When trying it out, I found that it kind of makes time slow down in relative nature to how fast you're going. It'll take some getting used to, and there's only a limited amount of time on the charge, but it could help you out of a fair few sticky situations."

He handed the suit to Ora.

Finally, Sheldon pulled Jace's suit from the back room. It was in a shade of blue, dark, deep blue. A blue with as many layers as the sky itself, ending with the blackness of void.

"And yours is definitely something that I've not really tried before. In the bottom left of your helmet there is a small Heads Up Display, or H.U.D. for short. This uses a custom, personal echolocater to see where all of your friendly inklings wearing the armor suits are. You know exactly where they are, and what your surroundings look like whenever you use this suit. However I've found that with enough damage, the readings may become unreliable, so be careful when in a fight."

Jace took his suit. The material it was made out of was smooth and pleasant, nothing scratchy. Sheldon gestured to around the room, "Each of you can pick out a weapon for your suit's extra holster. I won't charge you for this, I'm way too excited."

The three inklings wandered around Ammo Knights, looking at all the high quality gear that Sheldon had to offer. Callie thoughtfully saw a Krak-on Roller and attached it to her suit, which was hanging up on a rack nearby. Ora, remembering this morning with the chargers, grabbed an e-Liter 3k custom from a rack and hooked it up to her suit, which she was already wearing.

And Jace grabbed his favorite professional squid's weapon of choice, an inkbrush. Jay's own preferred weapon seemed to fit just right to Jace's height, but Jace didn't like it. It was way too light and unweildy, it was like swinging a toothpick around. He settled on something that was a sort of hybrid between the inkbrush and a high powered weapon, the Octobrush. He grabbed it and gave it a test swing, perfect. The weight and balance seemed to be made for his hand, and he hooked it up to the sheath on his suit's back.

"Excellent!" Sheldon said, "Now, you'll be needing more than a few bags and hangers to take back your forty-odd suits."

He gave them the bags and suits, making them wear their own suits and weapons back, and set them off back to the Academy.

"Have a great day!" He called out behind the group.

"Stay fresh, Sheldon!" Callie called back.

They set off to the Academy and dropped off the suits, then took off back to their individual homes with their suits, ready to tell everybody just what they did that night.

A/N: All right. A little something to shake things up a bit. I'm having fun writing this out, but I want to know you guys' opinions on this story. What could I be doing better, I'm going to flesh out the other squids very soon, so don't worry about that, but what could I be doing better in writing. I hope that you have enjoyed this story so far, and will keep coming back to read on Jace, Ora, and Celine's newest adventure in the Splat Academy. Don't forget to follow or favorite if you're inclined to do so, and as always: Have A Great Day! Dlahm out!


	16. Academic Armor (reuploaded with edits)

Jace and Ora wore their suits to the Academy the next day. In Jace's mind, they must have looked like total badasses, walking down the street to get to the pipe in their suits. And he was right. Nobody in Inkopolis had ever seen any outfit like that before, technologically advanced suits of armor. Jace left his helmet off, letting it hang on the back of his suit, and he saw every squid he passed staring at him, Ora, Celine, and the other Octarians.

That withstanding, they were forced to be a bit sneakier to get into the pipe this time, as there were a fair few people watching them go. Once they were finally able to get down the pipe without others watching them, Celine noticeably breathed easier.

"Whew." Never thought that we could get down here without being noticed. That suit is not a good idea to wear anymore to the Academy. I still can't believe that you even have something like that, why couldn't I have gotten a cool one?"

Jace had already told Celine about their suits, even though the rest of the Academy hadn't been told yet. "I guess it was just a thing of right place, right time." He said, shrugging.

Celine's foot rose to stomp on Jace's foot, and he just let her slam his foot with as much force as she could muster, and that was quite a bit of force. It didn't hurt him, he had his armor on. But he flinched all the same to make Celine feel better.

"It's not my fault that you weren't there, Celine, I didn't have that choice. You'll still be getting a protective suit. It's just not going to be one of the ones that Ora, Callie, and I have."

Celine put a hand on her gun. Evan saw this and decided to step into the middle of it before Celine started shooting at Jace. He walked up and put his hands on Jace's back, steering him down the sewer tunnel. Philip walked ahead of them, hyper as usual, and Crista walked with Ora and Celine to work on Celine's violence streak.

"You can't always resort to violence whenever something happens." Ora was telling Celine while Crista backed her up.

"Why not?"

"It doesn't work out all the time, and when it does the results aren't what you're looking for."

Celine shrugged, "Seems to work out just fine nine times out of ten."

That conversation didn't make much ground on ridding Celine of her violent tendencies.

Once they reached the Splat Academy, Callie was out front waiting for them to arrive. She ignored Philip, who was seeming to shake with excess energy, instead talking to the others.

"Hey guys!" She called out in her traditional cheerful attitude, "How did you sleep?"

"Just fine," Celine told her, eyeing a bundle of clothes that Callie was carrying. The suit, perhaps?

Callie unraveled the bundle to reveal that, yes, it was the suit she got from Sheldon the day before. She looked at it for a moment before pressing it into Celine's hands. Celine stared at Callie in shock.

"Wha-?"

"I don't need it. I talked to Marie about this yesterday and this morning, and she agreed on it. Our ability in a match comes from how we mirror each other and can pull off moves that require that exact mirroring. This suit will just be a distraction to us. So I wanted to give it to you. Your..." she looked at Celine, who was still gripping her gun, and then the dent in Jace's foot, "Personality would be perfect for the secondary weapon I had fitted to this."

She gestured to the Krak-On roller that was hanging in the suit's sheath. "It does a lot of damage, and is up close and personal. I think that you could use this more than me."

Celine took the bundle and stared at it, then Callie, then back to the bundle of armor. "I-, uhhhhh. I. Thanks, Callie, that's awesome. Are you sure about this?"

"Yes."

Jace walked up and looked at the suit exchange, then Callie's shocked expression. "Well then. That seems rather, convenient I might say?" And Celine was forced to agree with that.

She put the suit on the instant Callie went back inside to prepare her lessons for the day. The suit fit Celine perfectly, despite it being made for Callie, and she seemed to love how it felt.

"It's so comfortable." She said in pleasure. Jace nodded.

* * *

The day went along swimmingly. But every squid there questioned Jace, Celine, and Ora on where they got the suits. Each time somebody asked, Jace would merely reply, "You'll see." Marie didn't even regard the suits as a new development, just went along teaching class like there was nothing wrong. When it came to be Ora's turn to go through an obstacle course, she activated her fast movement ability from her suit. It didn't go that well. Unaccustomed to the drastic increase in speed, Ora careened out of control into the wall that she was supposed to be running up.

She promised Marie after that, that she'd learn to use the skill before actually trying it in a class setting.

Agent 3 was wearing his hero's suit once again that day. But he took Jace, Ora, and Celine aside before the class to tell them that they would need to master both weapons that they have. If they couldn't do that, then they wouldn't be prepared to use the suits.

There was another charger lesson that day. This time, Ora had her own E-liter to work with instead of borrowing one from the wall. She almost nailed Agent 3 each time she shot, using borrowed Inkling ink of course, they wouldn't load her gun up with anything but that, it was just too much of a safety hazard. And by the end of the class, Agent 3's shoes were completely covered in ink.

Callie did as her sister did, and completely ignored the fact that Jace and his friends were wearing suits of armor. She had them go through a lesson of how to counteract a team of chargers.

On the other hand, Azure was constantly pestering Jace on where they got the suits. There was never a quiet moment when they were together for an instant. Ever five seconds it would always be, "So where'd you get the suits", "why don't I have one?", "why can't I get one?"

Incessant talking.

It didn't help that Eddie was eyeing Celine's new Krak-on roller. He had a greedy look in his eyes that Jace had never seen before. He even almost spoke to Celine before collapsing in a fit of silence.

At the end of the school day, there was the debriefing. Cuttlefish got up in the cafeteria in front of every squid and spoke on how the day had gone and recent developments.

"So, as you all may have seen," he started, "The Octarians Evan, Crista, and Philip are now a permena not part of the Splat Academy. They have been deemed trustworthy thanks to glowing reviews from Jace.

"A small group of Octarians were spotted moving up the valley. I want the charger team to stay behind and tell them that they should keep away with a few volleys of fresh ink. Report to Agent 3 after debriefing to receive orders on this.

"As for rankings in team battles. In first place is the flying brushes. Followed by Squids in Black. After them comes chargerfyre. In fourth right now is Death Incarnate. Fifth place is blasting Fresh. Sixth is E=splat squared. Seventh is fiend class. And eighth is Drop Zone.

"Another thing you may have noticed is that several of our students have taken it on themselves to wear a special sort of suit to school today. These suits are part of a custom order that we out in to Ammo Knights for water resistant armor. This will protect us against a recent development that we've seen in the octarians: they mixed their ink with water to be a more effective killing solution. Everybody will be issued a single set of armor. It is your job to take it here every day and to keep it in a condition worthy of a battle. It may well be that this armor saves your life. Come on up and pick up your set of armor after debriefing, I will be by Callie, Marie, and Agent 3 to pass these out to everyone."

It didn't even take to the end of the speech for a line to form in front of Cuttlefish. All it took was the mention of armor for everybody to form a line in front of Cuttlefish. He pulled out an example of the suit and held it up for everybody to see, then started showing off how it works. By the end of the explanation, the entire academy was in a line in front of him.

He handed the suits out to everybody once he was done highlighting the finer points of the suit's defensive capabilities, each person got a single suit for their use both at the academy and out of it. Everybody was informed that they were required to bring the suits each day to the Academy in case of an attack or in case of scouting duties gone wrong.

Azure finally stopped pestering after she got her own suit. Before she had sat down at the table Jace was at she was pulling out a marker to color the suit her own style. In fact, most squids there were doing something of the sort to make the suit their own. Jace saw Ray pull out a "Flying Brushes" sticker and paste it to the back of his suit.

No other suits had the special valves or any other power that Sheldon had implemented. Only Jace, Ora, and Celine had those suits, and they were instantly recognized for it. Squids that Jace had never really talked to before walked up to him to ask why his suit was different, several came up to Ora to talk about how her suit seemed to be sleeker in design and was cooler, and the engineer group was examining Celine's suit to determine just how the valve worked. Apparently it was very simple, as they shook their heads in disgust and berated each other for not thinking of those ideas first.

"So, what makes your suit different?" A squid with a classic squiffer said to Jace.

Jace looked at him, "Sorry?" he asked, having not heard the question.

"What makes your suit different than everyone else's?"

The squid with the squiffer put a hand on his hip. He was taller than Jace with purple hair and a jacket covering most of his torso and neck. Jace shrugged, "In terms of protection, nothing. But along the inside of my helmet I can see a small map of the area and where those wearing our suits are. So basically, I know where all of us are at any time. I'm not going to use that during a match, but it would be helpful if the Octarians attacked us."

The squiffer squid asked if he could look at it, Jace let him. The squid walked around Jace to look at the valve and then at the inside of his helmet, which was still hanging on Jace's back. Once he was done he held out a hand for Jace to shake.

"Th'name's Pavyl. Nice to meet you." he pronounced the name Pah-vel. Jace took the hand, "Jace."

Pavyl took a closer look at Jace, "You were the one who went to recover those Octolings that one night, weren't you?"

Jace nodded, "Yeah. That was me and a few other squids. How do you know?"

"I was the one covering your retreat, don't recognize my voice?"

Now that Pavyl mentioned it, Jace did recognize the voice. He even remembered watching several Octarians dissolve into puddles from squiffer fire. "Yeah, I kind of remember now. Thanks for that, didn't get to thank you the day of."

"You were a bit distracted with avoiding Octarian fire, s'all right man."

Pavyl left and a new squid took his place. This one was female. She was dressed in a full suit, head to toe, and shades darker than an Octarian goggle. She carried a luna blaster at her side, holding it like she had been using it since birth.

"You, talk. How do you have that suit?" She pointed the gun at Jace and he thought that her and Celine would get along quite well. He held up his hands in surrender.

"Whoah," Jace said, "Hold up. It was just a right place right time thing. No need to shoot."

She put the gun down and held out her hand without ceremony, "Ivy. Part of Squids In Black, we're one of the groups here, but I don't think we've played you yet. Doesn't matter anyway." She said, putting her hand down as Jace went to take it which left Jace grasping the air for a now nonexistant hand.

"Ah, okay."

Ivy holstered her gun, "You, outside, now. Go. Cuttlefish told me to explain a few things."

"Ah... okay?" Jace's confusion was evident on his face.

"Wasn't a question. Go."

Jace went.

A/N: whoops. There was a lot of mistakes on the chapter. I fixed them after they were pointed out to me by a few loyal fans, thanks guys. I want to apologize for the shoddy first draft that i out out, I've been busy lately with a new job. (Im saving up for a wii u so that I can actually play splatoon. maybe even play with you guys out there. Maybe we could make a crew and go into a tournament sometime.) i want to say thank you to those who pointed out these mistakes: Alewar Warinot, DarkFord, and two guests. I (as you may have realized by this point) have deleted the chapter then reuploaded so that you guys are alerted to the fact that I've been listening and have edited out the mistakes. And As Always: Have A Great Day, Dlahm Out!


	17. Ivy's mission

"Okay, Jace, listen up and listen good. I am not going to ever repeat myself to you. If you don't listen, I don't care, you only get one chance at hearing what I have to say."

Ivy and Jace were now outside the Academy, off to the side where Inklings don't normally go unless they have some sort of task there.

"Cuttlefish, since your little adventure to go collect those Octarians, has sent my team out on scouting mission after scouting mission in order to figure out what the Octarian plan is. So far we have found out absolutely nothing. We've gone on more than ten missions into all the nearby Octarian camps and there's no sign of any plan. We've stolen intelligence, copied files, took pictures of absolutely everything, and yet there was nothing to learn."

She paused and took a breath, clearly annoyed that they'd not discovered anything.

"We have not been authorized to go as deep into Octarian territory as you did when you rescued those Octarians due to our knowledge of their weapons and our standard armor not protecting against water. But now that we have this new armor, we have the advantage on those slimy Octopi. However, Cuttlefish wants no chances for a mission. He wants you, as one of the select few who have been down there, to lead this next mission. You're to take a group of your choosing down to the Octoling training camp, escorting my team to the commander's tent, from there we will eliminate, in silence, all enemy threats and take all the data we can. After that we will fight our way out of the camp and make it back up to the Academy. We will have a group of chargers covering us as we retreat. This mission will take place at tomorrow by eleven o'clock. Have a team ready by then."

And Ivy left Jace there in silence, not giving him any chance to actually asked any questions. Seemed like she was completely serious on the 'no questions' thing. Jace shrugged and walked back inside the building, walking over to Callie and Marie, who were coloring their new non-specially made suits their own traditional colors.

"Are you cool for a mission tomorrow?" He asked them. Marie looked at him, "For what?" She asked.

"We're going back to the Octoling camp to try an get info on the 'plan' the commander mentioned when we rescued Evan, Philip, and Crista."

Callie nodded, "We're in for that." And Marie gave Jace a rare smile, showing off her pointed teeth. The next person that Jace was able to see was the squid that he'd met earlier in the day: Pavyl. Pavyl was talking to his crew of inklings, all of which were hoisting some sort of charger weapon.

"Yo, Jace!" Pavyl said when he saw Jace approach, "You don't need to ask us anything. Ivy already came up to us and told us about the mission and what she wants from it. We've got your back, man, you good here. You're going to have the best charger unit at your side tomorrow." Jace didn't even have to bother asking Pavyl, it was like the guy read everything from Jace's mind and picked out what he needed. Jace merely smiled, gave a thank you, an went to find Celine. She was in the target range practicing with her new Krak-on Roller. He watched for a little bit, not bothering to make himself known.

As he watched, Celine swung the roller around to completely wreck a target and splatter several other targets nearby. she then ran down another target while not breaking stride and sheathed her roller after that one, twisting the valve on her ink tank to attach her splattershot's tube to the tank. This whole process only took her around four seconds to do and she was able to turn around after that time to spray another target. Jace let her continue for a few more minutes until she holstered the splattershot.

"Hey, Celine. Are you done here?"

Celine wiped the sweat from her brow, "Yeah. I was just trying out the new valve. What's up?"

"Cuttlefish wants us to go back down to the Octoling camp to get info on the 'plan' the Octoling Commander mentioned. We know the most about the camp. We should be the ones to infiltrate it. And," he added, "It would be good practice for your roller. Why not run over a fair few Octolings while down there?"

Celine smiled with bloodthirst. "Awesome, when is this?"

"Tomorrow night."

"I guess that I might as well keep practicing for that then!" She once again pulled out her splattershot and proceeded to aim and fire on every target in range. Nailing each in the head with a few careful shots.

Before he left, Jace tapped Celine on her shoulder to interrupt.

"Do you know where Ora and Azure are?"

"Check outside."

They weren't outside, Jace checked there quite thoroughly. But when he was checking the inside of the Academy for the second time, he spotted them sitting together in the main lobby, giggling like maniacs. Azure leaned in close to Ora's ear, pointed at Jace, then whispered something. The two of them dissolved into more silent giggles.

"Hey, Jace." They said together.

"Yeah, hi." Jace said, wary of the giggling maniacs, "Azure, can you and your squad go on a mission tomorrow? We need to infiltrate the Octoling camp and try to get some info from them. I want more than a group of five this time, I need more squids."

Azure shrugged, "Yeah, why not. I at least know that Eddie would be happy with squishing a few Octolings on the way. And I don't think that anybody has plans for tomorrow, so sure. I'm in. When is it?"

"Tomorrow night. And, Ora, do you want to come with?"

"Do you have to ask?"

"Good point."

They talked for a little bit longer about the plan Jace had and who would be in the mission. This thankfully gave Jace time to come up with a legitimate plan that would include all seventeen of the mission's members to maximum effect.

Come the next day and Jace had his plan completely fleshed out and ready to go. He even ran it by Callie in strategy class, who stopped her previous actions and thought for around ten minutes about it. She asked Jace a few questions and listened thoughtfully to his answers, and by the end of class was nodding her approval.

Cuttlefish called Jace to his office before debriefing and decided to ask what Inkling he would need for the mission. Jace listed them off.

"Callie, Marie, Azure and her squad, Ora, Celine, Ivy's squad, Pavyl's squad as backup support, and myself. They've all agreed to go already, all we need now is some supplies in the way of communication."

The Cap'n nodded his own approval at the group, "I can give you all earpieces. You'll be directly connected with each other and to Agent 3, who will be the mission control squid in the Academy tonight. Any questions you have during the mission will be directed at him. He will give you guidance if necessary, but you are not required to follow his guidance. Good luck." And he opened up a file cabinet to pull out seventeen earpieces and give them to Jace, one for each Inkling involved in the mission tonight. They went down to the cafeteria together for the debriefing,, and Jace took a seat near his friends.

At the end of debriefing, Cuttlefish mentioned the mission and said that if anybody was chosen for the mission they should stay behind after debriefing for further instructions.

And that concluded the debriefing. After everybody else had left, those in the mission came up to Jace for him to explain.

"The mission starts at eleven o'clock tonight, make sure you're here and ready by then. Our task is going to be to infiltrate the Octoling training camp and recover information from the camp. Pavyl," Pavyl nodded, "You and your charger team cover us from a distance. Stay out of sight as much as possible and don't fire until I give word for it. You're going to be a surprise, and you'll also give us info on what's going on inside the base, as you can see all of the base. I'm not going to give you a specific spot to be in, all I need is for you guys to have the whole camp visible to yourselves. The rest of us will sneak to a cable car located at a nearby camp and take it down to the Octoling training grounds. from there we make our way to the command tent. Ivy's team will collect the data while we cover them. Once we're done we're going to make our way back to the cable car and get back to the adjacent camp, disabling the cable car once we're done with it. From there it's a simple fight back to the surface. Stealth is only required on the way down to the target, after that you're free to engage any hostile we see. Got it?"

Everybody nodded, Jace handed out the earpieces.

"Excellent, we meet back here at ten thirty."

Jace, Celine, and Ora left with Evan, Philip, and Crista. As they walked back up the pipe, Evan asked what was going on tonight, as Jace hadn't explained it to him because he wasn't in the mission.

"Oh, sorry," Said Jace, "I forgot to tell you. There's a mission tonight, I'm sorry but you're going to need to stay at the Academy while we get this done. are you guys okay with that?"

Evan looked to Philip and Crista, who both nodded. "Yeah, we're fine with staying there."

"Cool."

They walked back to Jace's house and Jace crashed on his couch to turn on the television. He flipped through the channels mindlessly. An old cartoon called Squid Gril, the newest Splat Zone match, the turf war channel, history channel, news. He stopped on the news, Marie and Callie were on.

"-most recent tournament ended without the Flying Brush's appearance, despite their fans all calling for them to play. The winners of that tournament was the Squids Next Door group, who beat out Squidkidz to take the prize winnings. They're predicted to win the 'Hook Line Sinker' tournament next month" Callie was saying on the T.V. Marie held up her own hand and continued the thought.

"Speaking of Hook Line Sinker, the sign ups for that will be at Ammo Knights for the next three weeks, sign up by then to participate."

A frantic knock on the door stole Jace's attention away from the news.

"I've got it." Ora said, leaving the conversation she was having with Celine and Crista to open the door. Standing in the doorway was Callie and Marie, surrounded by a paparazzi to end all others.

"LET US IN!" Callie shrieked, barreling through the door to almost knock Ora down on the way in. Marie followed her and shut the door behind them.

"Gah, that was way too close." Marie said, catching her breath. Jace stood up and walked over to open the door slightly, "What is goi-"

SLAM!

Callie slammed the door shut, making some pictures of Jace's family on the wall rattle.

"No. Don't open that door. The paparazzi out there is hell itself." She helped Ora to her feet, "Sorry about that Ora. those squids found us the second we got out of the pipe. At first, they didn't recognize us because we're wearing those new suits."

And she was right, they were both wearing their new armored suits. "But once they recognized us, they cahsed us down, trying to figure out what this new style is. So we ran, we didn't want them to know about the armor. We saw you guys walking, so we tried to follow you. By the way, thanks for letting us in."

Marie looked at the t.v.

"We recorded that one yesterday." She said blandly, "There's nothing interesting on after this last part."

The Marie on the t.v. kept talking.

"The prize money for Hook Line Sinker is rumored to be over fifty thousand. And on to..."

Jace shut it off, "So you guys can stay here for a bit if you want. But where's your guns? We'd need those for the mission tonight."

"Back at the Academy," Marie told him, "We've got everything we need ready."

"except for a way to get to the Academy without being followed." Crista observed.

Marie shrugged, "I've got this." And reached for her tank on her back to fill a small bomb with ink. Opening a nearby window in another room, she lobbed the bomb into the middle of the crowd of squids.

The screams of surprised and painted Inklings filled Jace's ears.

"Now we can wait." Marie said with a small smile on her face.

A/N: I'm so sorry for being late on this one as well. It's so hard for me to balance my job, my sport, school, hobbies, and fanfiction. But I promise you that I will be on time from here on out. I'm starting to try and work ahead so that I have chapters all typed up in advance, so you'll never be wanting for Splaticide again. Or coming to my house with Pitchforks and torches ready to burn me down if I don't give you a chapter on time. Your choice. But either way, big battle coming up. Might even be a multiple chapter battle. Idk. I felt like the last time they went down into the Octoling camp, it was rushed and too fast, so this one will be much more intense and much longer. Go figure. And As Always: Have A Great Day! Dlahm Out!


	18. Infiltration

When it got late outside and the now inked crowd dispersed, Jace and the crowd inside his home snuck out and away. They took the shadows over to the pipe in silence and Jace held it open for everybody to go through. Once everyone was in, Jace took one last look around himself, and dropped through the manhole cover leading to the pipe. He landed with a dull thud on the walkway and started walking with everyone.

"I bet you that I can take down more Octarians than you." Celine was telling Ora, who was loading her Octoshot with a specially made tank of Inkling ink that she used in place of her own ink. She carried multiple tanks of the Inkling ink with her, and should she run out of ink Jace or another Inkling could refill her tanks with their own ink, but she was at more of a disadvantage than the others because of it.

"Hardly." Ora scoffed, "want to make a real competition out of this?"

Celine smiled and nodded, so Ora leaned in while they were walking and whispered something in her ear. Jace heard his name whispered several times, so he walked over. "So what's the prize of winning?" He said innocently.

The two girls, Inkling and Octoling, looked at him and smiled coyly. "Nothing." They said at the same time. Jace didn't believe them, no doubt that whoever won this bet would use him as a target for their target practice.

"Right." Jace said, his tone dripping with disbelief.

Azure, Pavyl, and Ivy were all at the Splat Academy when Jace and his crew showed up. Evan, Philip, and Crista gave a nod and a "Good luck, don't die." before retiring to the inside of the Splat Academy.

"Are you guys ready?" Jace asked Azure, Pavyl, and Ivy. They all nodded and shouldered their weapons confidently.

"Good, let's get inside and report to Agent 3."

They walked inside as a group and met up with Pavyl, Azure, and Ivy's squads and made their way over to the offices, passing Evan who was practicing his shots in the shooting range. Agent 3 was in Cuttlefish's office looking at maps, but he turned around when the door opened.

"Hey there guys," he said while putting in an earpiece, "Let's first test out these earpieces before you go. why don't each of you head off to a different classroom with your squads."

Jace decided to go to the advanced movement classroom with Ora and Celine.

"Okay," 3 said through the earpieces, "Squad leaders sound off acknowledgement."

"This is Azure, acknowledged."

"Pavyl, acknowledged."

"Callie here, acknowledged."

"Ivy, acknowledged."

"Jace, acknowledged."

Agent 3 spoke up again, "Ivy's squad members sound off acknowledgement." After they were don he kept going down the line, "Jace's squad members. Calli's squad. Pavyl's squad. Azure's squad."

Once everybody had sounded off, Agent 3 told them all what the conditions would be like tonight, clear and dark, and enemy activity, none so far.

"But make sure that you stay safe." 3 said. Jace put a finger to his earpiece, "Got it. We'll report in every time we can. Everybody meet in the lobby area, it's almost time to head out."

They all went to the lobby, decked out in the new armor suits and hoisting their weapons. Jace grabbed his helmet from where it was hinged on his neck and fit it to his head, snapping it into place. The H.U.D. powered up on his visor, showing a map of the surrounding areas and several dots representing those wearing suits in the center. The map went to the bottom left corner of his visor's view where it stayed there active. Ora and Celine both flipped up their own helmets as well, hooking their visors into place. Everybody around them shouldered their weapons, checking the ink level, sights, trigger, and set up. When done, they nodded to Jace. He held up a hand to his earpiece, which despite being in his helmet he could still touch with ease, "Let's go."

They left the Academy like a set of shadows, moving silently between the platforms until they reached the first Octarian camp. Jace remembered the last time they went down this way, the camp was extremely easy to get by. Clearly, the Octarians beefed up their security force.

"Dang." Jace breathed, "That's a lot more guards."

He heard from behind the earpiece, and to his left, Ivy's voice. "Get behind cover, a light's coming this way."

The group of shadows hid behind whatever rock or tree was near them.

"Ivy," Jace whispered into his earpiece, "When did they tighten security here?"

"Last week."

"Perfect," Jace said dryly, "Just absolutely perfect."

The light passed over them and all the Inklings shrunk themselves against the cover to make themselves smaller targets. Once the lights passed over them without seeing them, Jace motioned for everyone to follow him. They half-crouched, half-ran their way around to the side of the camp and took cover as another light passed over them. Pavyl then had one of his squad look down the scope on his charger.

"Small group of guards." The squid said, "forty meters out, three of them. There's no lights nearby. Ripe pickings."

Jace pointed at Ivy and her squad, "You're up." Ivy nodded and tried to smile without bloodlust evident, but failed miserably at the attempt, "This should be some fun."

She motioned for two of her squad to follow, "Shiki, Evan, let's go."

They all pulled around blaster style weapons, a luna blaster, rapid blaster, and classic blaster to be exact, and slowly manuvered their way around the Octarians. Before the Octarians could even turn around to see what made the noise, Ivy, Shiki, and Ethan had slammed their heavy blasters into the nape of the Octarian's necks. The Octarians fell down, unconscious. They pulled the now unconscious prey back to a hidden location and waved Jace over.

"Clear." Came her voice over the earpiece.

"Good," Jace replied.

When Jace got there, Ivy and her two of her three other squadmates had exterminated their prey. All that was left of the Octarians were an ink stain on the ground.

They moved onward, passing around the first camp and down to the second. The second had also apparently received massive buffs to their security, because there were guards everywhere. There was nowhere at this camp that didn't have at least two guards standing watch, there had to have been a total of two hundred on patrol. No doubt that only a small group would actually get sleep tonight. Jace gave this camp a wide berth, sacrificing speed for their safety. There was no way they'd be caught dead near so many Octarians, it was like asking to die with a target strapped to your face.

"We're almost there." Jace told Agent 3 when they were outside the camp that had the cable car, "We're near the entrance to the cable car."

"Stay safe." 3 warned them.

The cable car entrance was located on the inside of the camp they were right outside of. Pavyl had his man look down the scope again.

"Four guards directly defending the car. Two on patrol nearby, no other hostiles." The squid reported.

"Thanks," Jace said, "Do you have a good shooting angle on them?" The squid nodded, "Good, when I give the signal; Pavyl, you and your team blast the four Octarians around the car. I'll take the other two guards. C'mon." He gestured for everyone else to follow him as Pavyl and his team set up their chargers to train on the enemy. Each squid acting as a spotter for the one next to him, this was a well oiled team.

"We're set up." Pavyl said in Jace's earpiece as Jace dropped lightly to the ground after jumping the fence surrounding the camp.

"Wait for a moment." Jace whispered into the earpiece cautiously, "And once you've fired move fast to make it to our location, we'll need you."

Pavyl grunted in agreement, Jace looked to Celine, "Hold here with Ivy, we do not want Pavyl and his group to be under pressure." The two girls nodded, and Celine swapped her weapons to bring around the Krak-on Roller. Jace snuck ahead, followed by the rest of the crew.

It was an area with shipping crates everywhere, creating a U around the cable car. The two patrol guards were leaning up against one of the left hand crates while the four car guards were talking and showing off their weapons to each other. Jace saw a red button next to the cable car labeled "Alarm", nobody should be allowed to reach that button. Jace motioned for everyone to stay there, then he made his way to the entrance to the cable car area on the left hand side of the U.

"Pavyl, now."

Four charger shots rang out from Pavyl's location, traveling fast and far to reduce the car guards to puddles. Jace walked calmly out from where he was hidden in shadows to see the two patrol guards rushing for the alarm. His first volley brought down the one on the left, and he ran after the one on the right, skidding into its bottom to knock it onto its back.

The Octarian tried to roll away to the side, but Jace nailed it in the back before it could get away. On the visor's H.U.D. he saw the dots representing Celine, Ivy, and Pavyl's group rushing to their locaiton. Everyone else came out of the cover to pile into the cable car. Jace put a hand to his earpiece, "Pavyl, take up positions hidden here. Don't let anyone see you. Azure, I want your group to stay here with Pavyl and watch their backs. We'll be coming back here on our way back, so keep an eye out and be ready to kill any Octarian you see."

"Roger." Pavyl said. His squad's dots on the H.U.D. split off from Celine and Ivy, Azure and her squad went to back him up after Jace told them where he was.

When Ivy and Cleine got to the cable car, Jace hit the 'descent' lever and they went deeper down the Octo valley. Ora switched her weapon to the E-liter and scouted it out at this time.

"Most patrols look like they're switching out right now, we've got maybe two minutes tops before they're back at full strength. There's two guards near the cable car entrance, but I don't see many others nearby."

Callie and Marie high-fived, "we can take them down, no sweat." Everybody got down in the car, hiding below the ridge so that they couldn't be seen. The car thudded to a stop ten feet away from the station at the Octoling camp.

"Stand up so we can see you." One of the Octoling guards yelled out to the car. Jace looked through a small crack in the car's side to see the Octolings training guns on the car.

"Come out already."

Callie put a hand on Marie's shoulder, she smiled. "Why don't we try that new move?" she said. Callie clasped her hands together under Marie's foot and Marie braced herself.

She flew into the air, propelled upwards by Callie launching her, and unloaded her ink on the two Octolings.

Marie landed lightly, "That took care of them."

"But we're still stuck out here over water," Ivy said as she tried to move the descent lever, but it was apparently stuck and overridden by the Octoling's stopping it, "And they didn't star the car back up again. What now?"

Jace looked at the cable above them, holding the car. He then looked at Callie, then back at the cable.

"I've got an idea." He walked over to where Callie was crouched out of sight, "Send me upwards." He said to her. She looked at him, not understanding.

"Launch me upwards," Jace pointed upwards at the cable. Callie followed his finger to where he was pointing and she grinned as she understood. Callie clasped her hands together under Jace's shoe and flung him upwards, displaying a strength far surpassing her petite body.

Jace felt his body rise into the air, and his hair stood on end as he came back down. He reached out to grab the cable and realized it was slipper, covered in an anti-squeak oil, and Jace's hand couldn't grasp it. He flung his arm out instead, jarring his joints as the cable rammed into his armpit. He swung his leg over the cable and tried to stand on it.

Below him right now was the car, but there was ten feet of cable over open water in front of him.

Instant death on falling.

His suit only resisted water, it wasn't going to fully protect him against it.

"Ooh, crap! Bad idea!" Jace said, wobbling unstably. His legs shook underneath him, but he tried to take a step forward, and almost plummeted into the drink. His foot slipped on the oil and his leg went right down, only stopping when he gripped the cable before falling. He stood up again shakily, and judged the distance.

"God, I'm an idiot." he whispered and jumped. The zero gravity caused his stomach to flip until he hit the ground where the two Octolings were killed, he rolled as he hit the ground, popping up and rushing over to the control panel and hitting the descent lever there. The cable car shook and started moving again.

When they got out of it, the whole crew seemed ready to take on anything that even looked at them the wrong way. "Sweet," Jace said, "Keep going."

 **A/N:** well then, chapter 18 now. Seems like we're making good ground. But now that we're a good distance into the story, I want to give out a question to everyone reading this: what do you ship? I want a little more focus on the relationships of our good friends in Inkopolis, and I want your opinion on what should be the pairings. Do you think Jace should be with your favorite character, go ahead, tell me. I'll tally up the votes and maneuver the story around to accommodate for whoever's pairings are the most popular. And As Always: Have A Great Day, Dlahm out.


	19. Infiltration part 2

Jace had barely said "Keep going" when footsteps were heard on the right. Jace and everyone else trained their guns at where the noise came from, a hallway made by closely placed shipping crates. The second any Octoling were to show their face, they'd get enough ink to the face that they wouldn't even get a chance to say "Hi there".

Just, before the Octoling could actually show its face, Ora filled up a bomb of her own and tossed it into the crate-made hallway. The moans of a splatted Octoling filled the air for one brief second before dying out

Ora smiled at Celine, "I'm winning our little competition." Celine frowned playfully, "Not for long." She pulled around her Krak-on roller and started petting it like it was an adorable dog that did a trick, "This little puppy right here is itching to squish a few good Octolings tonight."

Jace looked at his own Octobrush self-consciously, still holstered since he had picked it out at Ammo Knights, he hadn't used it yet. This was mostly due to the fact that forgot to train at all with it. Well, his .52 Gal had served him really well in the past, it'll serve him well tonight.

They moved inwards, sneaking around corners, watching each other's flanks, and splatting Octolings before they could yell for help. Celine and Ora kept up their little friendly competition, and it was basically Ora's deadly accuracy versus Celine's never ending tenacity. By the time they made it to the command tent, the score, as Jace was able to estimate, was Celine at seventeen and Ora at ten. Celine kept rushing ahead to take out the Octolings before Ora had a clean shot at them, and that's what was winning it for her.

Jace set up Ivy with her powerful Luna blaster at the point position in front of the tent flap, and he prepared to open the flap. He held up three fingers and mouthed the words "Three, two, one." Then yanked open the tent.

"Hands up Octolings!" Ivy yelled, rushing into the tent with her gun at the ready. Her squadmates were right behind her, covering any corner of the tent with their gun's sights. They worked as a well-oiled team, doing something that they clearly had done a hundred times over in practice, they were the definition of special operations. Jace and Callie ran right in after them, Marie, Celine, and Ora remained outside to cover their escape options. Four Octolings were lying dead as puddles, victims of Ivy's shots, and the two remaining guards seemed to be smarter as they both had dropped their guns and held their hands over their heads.

They both were scared, like Ora had been when Jace first found her, shaking and sweating. Both were female, goggles on and tentacles tied back into buns. Ivy pulled her gun around on them.

"I'm so sorry," She said with regret, "We can't take prisoners."

They nodded sadly, silently accepting the ending hand they were dealt. They reminded Jace of Ora in that as well, her resolve. Ivy was about to pull the trigger when Jace walked over and put a hand on her gun's barrel.

"We can't take prisoners, but do we really kill those who have surrendered? That doesn't make us any better than monsters."

Ivy and the two Octolings looked at Jace in surprise while Callie just smiled like she knew he would do that. Then Ivy shrugged.

"Your mission, your captives."

Jace looked at the two Octolings in front of him with their hands above their heads. They were slightly shorter than Jace, most likely younger than him as well, maybe fourteen or fifteen years if he could determine that from height and facial features. "Sorry about this though, it's gonna sting." And Jace walked around behind the two Octolings and slammed his gun's butt the back of each of their heads, knocking them out. He looked at their unconscious bodies as they lay on the ground and Callie walked up to his side.

"They're now knocked out, but we still can't take any prisoners. And we don't know what they will think of us, they might not be as sympathetic as Ora or Evan. We don't have any room at the Academy to hold captives, but it's still your choice on whether or not to bring them back with us, I'm going to advise you against this."

Ivy and her squad were already getting started on copying and stealing information. Jace poked his head outside the tent to see that there was no threat nearby yet.

"Hey, Ora, I'm going to need you in here for a second."

Ora walked into the tent and Jace gestured to the two Octolings, "Do you know these two Octolings?"

"Seen them, never talked to them."

Jace nodded, "What was the Octarian punishment for failure in duties?"

"Termination from life and your job. They force you to go for a swim."

"Thanks, you can go back outside now."

She hefted her gun and exited the tent. Jace looked at the two Octolings again and grit his teeth, he knew that they didn't have room to take them. "Damn it," He spat out, "I was going to leave them here, but now. I can't have that on my conscious. If we leave them, we've basically killed them as surely as if we shot them."

Callie frowned and pursed her lips thoughtfully, "Crap. We don't have room for them, but I feel exactly the same way about this. There's nothing we can do, either they die or we have a security risk."

Jace held a hand to his earpiece, "3, are you there?"

"Right with you."

"We're bringing back at least two captives, make sure that there's a room prepared for them."

"We don't have any rooms for prisoners." 3 sounded kind of annoyed, like he knew that this was going to happen sometime.

"Then set up a room for guests if you have to. I don't care if we have the right supplies to hold them down in a room, we just need to make sure that they can't leave easily. I can't explain it all right now, I'll explain it when we get back. Just make sure that we can compromise, it's extremely important that we can accommodate this."

Jace heard Agent 3 sigh over the radio, "Fine, you're responsible for them so that they don't kill everybody here." Jace shut off the earpiece and looked at the Octolings again.

"Now we just need a way to get them back with us without them dying."

"We're done here," Ivy called out to Jace, "Come check this out."

Jace left the two Octolings lying on the ground and walked over to see the document Ivy was holding. On the document was a map of Inkopolis and annotations displaying the placement of troops. The troops were completely surrounding Inkopolis, cutting off every road and trail out of it.

"It looks like they're setting up for some sort of siege," Jace observed. Ivy nodded, agreeing with his judgement.

"They'll have troops all around us, and some sort of war machines." She gestured to the map again where multiple points had larger figures drawn out on there. "There's not going to be any way to get food into Inkopolis, we'd either have to die from starvation or surrender."

Jace nodded. Ivy took a picture of the document with a small camera she fit into the pocket of her armored suit, and then replaced the document. "Let's get going." She told Jace. Jace looked at the Octolings and then grabbed one by the waist and hoisted her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

"Somebody take the other Octoling." He said, and one of Ivy's squad members put the other Octoling over his shoulders. The Octoling was deadly skinny and extremely light, weighing next to nothing as Jace carried her outside. It worried Jace that somebody could have so little body mass.

Ora, Celine, and Marie were standing guard outside and looked surprised as Jace exited while carrying an Octoling. "We're going," Jace told them, "We've got everything that we need. Someone tell Agent 3 that, I can't reach my earpiece right now." Celine relayed the info to 3.

"Inklings! Inklings in the camp!"

Jace heard an Octoling somewhere in the camp yell out and purple ink landed on the tent behind Jace.

"Take cover!" Jace yelled, looking for the Octoling. The voice originated from the tower nearest to them, and Jace saw an Octoling there opening fire with a standard Octoshot. He ran forwards to get behind another tent, from the tent he was behind emerged several more Octolings who jumped right into the fight, firing on Jace.

The shots connected with Jace's midsection. His suit blocked the majority of the blasts, but still a bit seeped inwards to burn Jace's stomach region.

"Gah!" Jace said, stumbling backwards as the shots hit him. Then Ora was at his side, melting his attackers into purple puddles.

"Are you okay?" She asked, checking his armor.

It burned hotter than anything Jace had felt, but it wasn't life threatening, Jace grimaced in pain. "I'm okay, we need to keep going."

A quick look said that the rest of the group he'd come with was rushing off away from the pressure of the ink shots and to a corner opposite of the way they came. It was the only spot that didn't have ink surrounding it. Jace rushed forwards to them, trying to carry the Octoling without tripping. He joined up with the rest of the squad without taking any fire. One of Ivy's squadmates, Shiki, offered to take the Octoling from Jace's shoulders when he arrived. Jace crouched down and Shiki took the Octoling, freeing up Jace to use his body. On his H.U.D., Jace could see that up next in their way, if they chose to continue going the way they were faced, was to be a maze of some sorts. It was most likely made out of tents. He looked backwards at the way they came, the fastest way back to the cable car, but there was too much fire pressure for that to be safe.

"Move!" Jace yelled as he lit a match and tossed it onto the command tent to light it on fire, then running to the front, taking the point position and letting his H.U.D. navigate the way through the maze of tents. His mind went into autopilot. Run, aim, shoot, run, dodge left, kick out at a close enemy, shoot. The whole escapade through the maze was as blur of action and reaction, never stopping movement lest the Octolings that were undoubtedly behind a corner were to get a clear shot.

The last portion of the maze before they would be able to flank their way to the cable car was a clear cut straightway, and at the end was a group of at least thirty Octolings getting ready to fight them. They fired in a line at Jace and he was forced to run behind another tent. He heard a yell from behind him, one of his squad members no doubt. He hit his earpiece.

"Damage report!" He shouted.

"Marie was hit in the leg!" Callie shrieked back into her own earpiece, "Gonna need a minute to isolate the wound and dress it."

"We don't have a minute, we're pinned down." Jace warned.

"I'll handle them then." Ora said into her earpiece. A blur sped by where Jace was hidden and Jace risked poking his head out to have a look at what it was. It was Ora, activating her suit's speed feature and rushing down her opponents.

They fired on the blur but it seemed like Ora dodged all of the shots with near contempt. She jumped, using her speed to get exrra height and length, right into the middle of the Octoling squad. They couldn't risk firing on each other, so it came down to a hand to hand match up. They rushed at Ora.

She dodged the first sets of punches and kicks and fired into the faces of any Octoling stupid enough to be in front of her.

"I'm!" Jace heard her yell, no need to use the earpiece.

She elbowed two Octolings on opposite sides, jumped, and kicked them away.

"Not!"

Several tried shooting her, but she dodged and the shots hit their fellow Octolings, who cried out as the water content burned into them like acid.

"One!"

She flipped backwards, using her speed to drive the toe of her boot through an Octoling's chin. Jace heard a sharp crack as the Octoling's jaw shattered. Ora landed lightly and spun, sending her heel into the shattered mandible. The Octoling crashed to the ground, grabbing at its face and screaming in pain.

"Of!"

It was like nobody could touch her, they shot, they punched, they elbowed, kicked kneed; but nothing connected to Ora's body. Or at least she didn't show any injuries. She seemed to dodge everything they threw and dealt out twice the pain.

"you!"

And the last Octoling fell. Ora stood in the center of what remained of the Octoling squad. All around her were the liquid remains of several, but most were just lying on the ground moaning from their wounds. Jace saw several Octolings with bones poking through their skin, ink staining the ground around them. Jace walked up to Ora, she stood there shaking, tears in her eyes.

He started checking Ora for injury, but as he did so she collapsed in his arms. Jace stumbled for a second, but held Ora steady.

"Whoah, are you okay?" Jace asked, concern evident. He looked back and saw everyone else still dealing with Marie's wounds.

"I- I knew them." Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Ora pressed her head onto Jace's shoulders, staining his armor with her tears. "I saw their faces; I remember their names. I trained with some of them, and now?"

Several injured Octolings melted before their eyes, succumbing to their wounds and the loss of their blood-ink. Ora shook again as she saw this.

"They didn't like me when I was here, I was never close to any, I knew that. But still, now they're gone."

Jace held her until everyone else got done with Marie's injuries. They made sure no other Octolings were coming while Jace comforted her.

"Ora, I heard you. You yelled out that you aren't one of them anymore. We're your friends, we're with you, and we're not going to let anything happen to you. But right now, we've got to get back, or else we're going to have a lot of trouble on our hands in around two minutes." Yelling voices came from the other side of several tents. "make that thirty seconds."

Jace mentally kicked himself, that was the most awkward way he could've tried to comfort her. But it apparently worked as Ora lifted her head, hugged Jace, and got up. Celine walked over to Ora and hugged her as well.

"I think that you're winning," Celine said begrudgingly, looking at the thirty odd Octolings that were just eliminated, "Our little competition, I mean."

Ora looked at Celine a second, and laughed. It was just too random not to. Her laugh echoed over the whole camp, and she quickly stopped it as she realized that their security was at risk.

"Let's keep going then, I don't think that Agent 3 would like it if we're late. And I've got a little reward to reap once we're back. I'm still planning on winning this competition."


	20. Infiltration part 3

"Clear!" Jace heard Ivy say into her earpiece, watching her check the cargo box made hallway to her left. "Move them up a bit."

The group's movement was much slower than Jace would've liked. They had to take it slower for Marie's injury and for each of the two knocked out Octolings. Every one of those injuries required the group to move a little slower, and even took a member of the team out to take care of the recipient of the injury. Callie was helping Marie limp along while Ivy's two squad members held the Octolings. This left only Jace, Ora, Celine, Ivy, and the other member of Ivy's squad: Ethan, to protect the whole crew from any Octolings that decided to chase them down. If Azure and her squad was there, then they could move much faster and safer, but as it was they were back with Pavyl's group to protect the gang of snipers. Remembering this, Jace held a hand up to his earpiece.

"Azure, Pavyl, check in. I want to know how you're doing."

There was static for a few moments before Azure's voice came in clear.

"Just fine, Jace. Nobody has seen us yet, we'll stay safe."

"Good, keep me updated." And Jace let the connection drop. He advanced with the group and looked at those under his command. The two squids carrying the Octoling captives looked like they were going to drop their quarry, too tired to continue. Despite the fact that the Octolings were extremely, even dangerously, light, running and carrying them took its toll on those two carrying them.

"Ivy," Jace said, moving up next to her, "Can you find a spot to rest? We're going to have a short break before making the stretch to the cable car."

Ivy nodded and walked ahead, checking for any Octarians nearby. Jace looked at their walls, made of cargo crates and boxes, the kind that were twice or three times the size of a normal squid, most often used for storage. Jace got an idea.

"Over here, Ivy." Jace said as he walked over to the double doors of a ground level crate, "Help me out with this."

He saw Ivy understand and she walked over to help him out. There was a lock on the door so Ivy gripped her luna blaster in both fists and slammed the butt of the gun down on the lock. It took a few tries, but the lock finally split off and spun out of sight. They opened the doors and hustled everybody inside.

Inside it was dark and dry, small boxes littered the walls and floor. Jace had the Octolings set down on those boxes, making sure they'd be comfortable before relaxing himself. He pulled off his helmet and wiped sweat from his brow. "Everybody, take a short break. We've got five to ten minutes before we head right back out. I want someone to watch the door, any volunteers?"

Celine raised her hand from the middle of the group and walked forward to sit down at the entrance. Jace whispered his thanks to Celine as she passed by him. Relaxing was kind of difficult for Jace, adrenaline and everything running through his veins. However, nearly everybody else collapsed on some boxes and let go of their weapons.

THUNK!

Jace looked on the right hand side of the shipping crate, a bunch of boxes had fallen over when Callie had tried to sit down. The contents of the crate cascaded onto the ground, small green packages with electronic wires on them. Jace looked at them as callie tried to pu tall the packages back into the box.

"Wait a moment," Jace told her, "What are these?"

Callie shrugged, "Never seen them before. They look like some kind of old technology, like before us squids came around. This isn't technology that any Inklings have been experimenting with."

Jace picked up one of the packages and turned it over in his hands. It didn't seem like anything special at all, didn't give Jace the feeling of empowerment he felt when hefting around an ink gun. The electronics on it seemed to connect to a small screen on the front which had an equally small number panel below it and several colored buttons. There were words on the side of the package reading out "Maintain Caution" and "H.E."

Whatever the heck that stood for.

"The Octarians seem to have quite an interest in these." Ivy said, having opened several other boxes to reveal more of the dull green packages, "We should at least take a few back to investigate. We've already stolen plans, why not steal tech too, could be useful."

Everyone seemed to agree with Ivy's logic, so Jace picked up a few and gave them to someone who actually had pockets to hold things. His suit, unfortunately, had no room for pockets.

"Hey," Celine whispered from the door, "Four Octolings, twenty feet away. They're looking for intruders. Can I take them out?"

Jace shook his head, "Wait a minute, stay out of sight." He turned his attention to the rest of the group, "Are all of you rested and ready?"

Nods from the group. Sean and Shiki picked up the still unconscious Octolings and hoisted them over their shoulders. Jace looked back at Celine, "Open fire."

Celine pressed herself against the cargo box's door and slammed the trigger to her splattershot. A volley of ink left her weapon to slam into the four Octoings. Three of the four dissolved right away, leaving the last one to Celine's mercies. But that Octolings had no intent on being captured or killed by an inkling, she stuck her gun up to her temple and smiled insanely.

"My death is my choice alone, squid-heads." The Octolings hissed and pulled the trigger, letting water content drill into her skull, destroying her life. She collapsed into a puddle of dark purple.

Her Octoshot didn't dissolve with her, and Ora walked over and picked up the gun. She turned it over, examining it. "Well, that was a better death than what she'd receive from Octarian military punishment." Ora tossed the Octoshot over her shoulder. It skittered for a few seconds before sliding out of sight.

Jace nodded grimly, "Let's keep moving. It looks like the cable car is right around this corner. I bet you that it's one of the more heavily defended structures here. Pin your ears back, otherwise you're probably going to be a stain on a wall."

The final corner turn was to the right. Before going, Jace could see the cable the car was attached to traveling back up and towards safety. He held up a hand and stopped the group, "Get ready." He whispered, then reached to his ink tank to fill up a bomb.

"We're going to saturate the area with bombs first, then head in. Ora, watch where you step, don't want you stepping in our own ink, that could lead to something we'd want to avoid."

She nodded. The whole group filled up their bombs and looked ready to toss them. Celine decided to fill hers to double the max capacity and it was wobbling precariously in her single hand grip. Jace held up his arm and got ready to launch the bomb.

"Ready."

The others mimicked his position.

"Throw."

And Jace flung his bomb into the cable car area, followed closely by the rest of the sacks of ink. They splattered across the area, launching Inkling ink everywhere. Jace turned the corner, eyes scanning for enemies.

There was nobody to fight. Every Octoling that had been stationed there were now liquefied, the bomb saturation had taken them down. Jace relaxed, but too early.

From inside the cable car itself, four Octolings had taken cover. They appeared over the railing as Jace started to relax his body and concentration.

"Go to hell you damned squid!" One of them screamed as they opened fire.

Jace took the shots on his chest and instantly slumped over as his body failed him. The armor held, but a ton of the ink had soaked past the protection to hit his body. Jace felt his breath catch in his throat as he fell to the cold ground. An involuntary grunt left his body as the floor met him.

The Octolings didn't see Jace's sniper team aiming at them from the higher platforms until they were shot with enough ink to kill twenty Octarians of the same caliber.

"Jace?" Jace heard someone above him say. He felt dizzy and faded, his sight foggy.

"Jace, c'mon, say something."

He remembered that he'd been hit, and tried to look at where the point of contact was. His head was held aloft for a single second but he didn't have the energy to keep it there and it went back down.

"Look at his chest, his chest."

"Aw, damn, that doesn't loo-"

Jace's hearing and vision faded until he could only see flashes of consciousness.

"You can't be serious, he won't-"

"-only choice."

"-need to try."

"-drastic."

"-eath"

And memory ceased to exist.

* * *

Jace's vision came back into existence. He was in the Splat Academy's medical area, lying in a soft bed completely naked. Thankfully there was a covering sheet, but just the shock of waking up nude got him paying attention instead of going back to sleep. He didn't sit up right away, that would drop the sheets off of him, but instead looked around. There were several other occupants of beds.

One of which was Marie, who was lying on her back while staring in the air blankly. Jace tried waving, but she didn't see.

"Marie." Jace whispered, it felt like it was a time he shouldn't be talking too loud. Marie didn't make any movements or reactions to Jace's voice other than breathing.

The two beds to Jace's right held the two Octolings who they'd captured. The Octolings were tied up, but only lightly. It seemed like they had woken up a few times while Jace was sleeping, they didn't have the telltale signs of having slept for days. Jace got a good look at them. They were both really young, younger than any Octarian Jace had seen before, like they were children. One of them had short tentacle-hair which was stylized with a few colors, clearly against the Octarian military regulation, while the other had the standard hair style of Octarian military. However, the Octoling with the standard hair style had some sort of necklace that was hidden the night Jace saw her, and knocked her out. It was hanging out now, shining silver against the black of her spandex clothing.

The door to the Medical Bay opened and Ora walked in. She was holding a few meals on a platter, but as she saw Jace she set down the meals and rushed to his side.

"Holycrapwhatthehellwereyouthinkingyoustupididiotwewereallworriedaboutyou." She said in rapid succession. Jace smiled as she hugged him.

"What happened to me?" He asked pragmatically. "I don't remember anything after we tossed bombs towards the cable car area."

Ora smiled warmly and squished him, he squeaked in pain, "My chest hurts." He said.

"Well, after you were shot by a couple of Octolings who had hidden in the cable car itself. Multiple shots to the chest, your armor blocked most of it thankfully, but it had soaked in. Pavyl noticed them right after they appeared and shot them from a distance, he covered us while we got you into the cable car and tried to get you back to the Academy before you bled out. The Octarian ink was burning through your skin, we could actually see the outlines of some of your ribs where the ink was really concentrated. Imagine how devastating that would have been without the armor we had."

Jace racked his brain further, remembering up to that point, "but what happened after that?"

"We raced past every enemy we saw; you were in a critical condition. Callie and Pavyl carried Marie between the two of them. Celine and I tried to keep you between the two of us so that you'd be more secure. Ivy led us up, she did great. She lost a tooth, though, when she was forced into some hand to hand combat with a few other Octarians. Thank god that Agent 3 was ready with medical supplies when we got back here, he got you back to stable condition before you were lost. We got your armor off of you so we can clean it and you've been passed out for a day."

Jace moved the covers a little bit to reveal his chest. It was completely covered in bandages.

"Thank you," he said, "Thanks for getting me back here."

Ora laughed pleasantly, "Well, I did win the competition Celine and I had. I couldn't let you die yet, then I wouldn't get my prize."

And she kissed him on his cheek.

"And that settles that, thanks for staying alive so I could claim my victory."

 **A/N:** And we've reached chapter twenty, time for the CHAPTER 20 CELEBRATION (I hope it's worth the week break that I took). Break out the party streamers. Now, every time I've reached chapter 20 in my fanfictions I've take time to thank everybody who's supported this story, and this story is one of my favorites. I'm friends with so many of you who have taken the time to review or favorite my story, and I'm so very grateful. Here comes the list.

To those who followed:

Boy Jav  
Darkford  
Dragonspirit996  
Dread Angel  
FlamestarLeaderofFireclan  
Golderik  
Jusmove  
Justice Plus Roxas OC Storys  
KitkattAttack  
Lopezdusk  
Memaiva  
Octoling  
Quagsire12  
Stuart456  
Tehreign  
Termanian-Oni  
ThePizzaLovingTurtle  
airmure  
ardenhoehnsaric  
deepcauldron  
namelesspenname  
pokejowita  
zIvyz

It's always nice to know that you want to hear the next chapter to Jace's story. You make me know that this story is wanted in the world.

To those who Favorited:

Alewar Warinot  
Boy Jav  
Darkford  
Dread Angel  
FlamestarLeaderofFireclan  
Golderik  
Jusmove  
Justice Plus Roxas OC Storys  
Memaiva  
Octoling  
Quagsire12  
Stuart456  
TwiliRupee  
deepcauldron

You are the ones who have shown me that this story is something that is good. You are the ones who keep me writing out these stories for the world's enjoyment.

And to those who have reviewed, I will not include a list as it would be quite difficult to track down everybody and find their names, I want to thank you all the most. You have given me criticism and ideas galore. It is only because of your efforts that this story has gotten better since chapter 1, and it is you that deserve the most praise. I have had idea after idea come to me, but none on the level that you readers have, and I always love to get to know you better. It's been my honor to be able to talk to you and enjoy your companionship.

Special thanks to Tehreign, who's given me so many ideas and help, Dread Angel, who got me started on this story, Darkford, who has caught me several times when i've made mistakes, BoyJav, who's supported me through this, And my deepest regards to zIvyz, who has become ma good friend and has done more for this story than anybody else.

Now on to news, I know that it took a while to get to this. Let me say that I am so sorry that I needed a week off, I really wanted to type, but my job was being pretty demanding. I want you to know that I always put the greatest effort I have into this story most of all, so I need more time editing these chapters than normal. So thank you all so much for reading, drop a comment with your ideas and criticisms, and as always: Have A Great Day, Dlahm OUT!


	21. Debriefing

"Well guys, we've got a pretty late debriefing for this mission here thanks to the good efforts of our friend Jace." Agent 3 said, joking around with the bunch of Inklings in front of him. "I could've sworn that he was trying to get shot. But no matter, you at least came home intact enough to count this mission as a success. Let's get the reports rolling, casualty count?"

Pavyl piped up from the back of the group, "Nobody's died other than your sense of humor, 3." Garnering laughs from everyone in the group. Despite having had further rest for a day or two since waking up, Jace had to hold in the pain when chortling along with the rest of his friends.

3 smiled with them, "And maybe your accuracy is lacking. Your wit can't even get close to me. You should work on that."

A big "OOOOOOH!" from the group. 3's smile extended, "And how many enemy casualties?"

It took a bit to add all the kills up as everyone had to consolidate how many they had taken down, but the final number came up to one hundred and twenty-seven Octarian casualties, seventy of which were Octolings or Octarian officers. Even 3 looked a little impressed, but he tried to keep it hidden among his sass.

"That's it? Geez, all of you should hit the shooting range a little more if that's how badly you're shooting. But oh well, I guess that it's a good number. Ivy, what info did we collect?" And 3 stood back to let Ivy speak.

"From the documents we've obtained from this mission, we have learned of plans to put Inkopolis under siege. The Octarians apparently have multiple siege weapons and devices that they are planning to place at key points around Inkopolis and bottle us up. They'll have us outnumbered, outgunned, and heavily outmatched. But we've definitely got them outplayed, we've clearly the better training for our troops, as proven by the casualty count of our last mission. We, however, should not relax; instead we should start preparing for their attack. It's planned to take place several months from now, so we have got some time to prepare for it. That was the major objective, acquiring that information, but on our way we acquired several other important pieces of information. One, a new generation of Octarians just joined the army's ranks, they should be ready for deployment in a year. Two, the Octarians have been researching the control of weapons that fire only water. And three, they have acquired several pre-inkling technologies, one of which was captured and is being tested on. That is all."

And Ivy sat back down. As she was speaking Jace noticed that one of her teeth was missing. He wondered what the story behind that was, it should be interesting. 3 retook their attention as he walked back up.

"Our task in the coming months has to be to fortify the Academy and prepare for siege. I'll admit that this is not a good situation, but if we tell anybody topside about this then everyone'll know of the Academy and that will be even worse. We need to prepare, but don't be obvious about it. If we can stop the Octarians here, then we'll have succeeded, we can't let them reach the city. Alrighty then, on that happy note, debriefing is over."

And 3 walked off. Jace felt his ribcage and winced at the soreness that lanced his side. Celine put her shoulder under his arm and helped Jace stagger over to a nearby chair.

"Thanks Celine." He mumbled.

"Yo, Splat Shoes, are you doing okay?"

Jace looked up to see Azure walking over to him. He hadn't been able to talk to her since having her check in when infiltrating the Octoling camp. She was dressed in her normal pink skirt which billowed a bit as she walked over.

"Yeah, Azure, I'm doing fine. Just a little bit sore, that's all."

She nodded, "That's good to hear. We've missed you in class while you've been recovering these past few days. I think that 3 is going to reintroduce you to our class with a good old fashioned firing squad."

"And I'll bet that you'll be the first one on that squad," Jace told her jokingly. Azure's humor fell off her face as she assured him, yes, she'd be the first one to open fire on him. But the humor stayed off as she leaned in a little closer and whispered in his ear.

"So, have you heard the rumors?"

Jace shook his head.

"Marie sleeps with her eyes open."

She said that like it was actually important to the survival of the Academy and Inkopolis. Jace looked at her, "What?"

"Somebody walked into the medical wing to see her sleeping on her bed with her eyes open. I don't know, I just thought it was interesting."

Jace shook his head, "You're really weird."

Ora walked over to Jace as Azure walked away. Celine smiled devilishly to her, "So, you might have won the competition, but watch this." And she leaned down, and in full view of Ora, kissed Jace on his cheek. "Thanks for leading us."

This elicited a cheerful laugh from Ora, "Well then, there you go." She said, "That's a good one."

"What's all the laughing about?" Said a voice behind Ora. Ora moved to the side to reveal Callie and a limping Marie.

Ora shrugged, "Ah, nothing."

"Well," Callie started, "We wanted to say thank you for leading this mission. You did well and both Marie and I wanted to say that you're a pretty good leader." Jace scoffed, "I was injured for half of that." But Callie shook her head, "You made it possible for us to continue since you had planned ahead, it was very well laid out. That's a good sign for leadership. So… thank you."

Marie took over the next sentence, "There haven't been many people here who've known us that well. It's kind of hard when we're acting like teachers half the time and pop stars the other half. 3 was the first one to actually treat us like equals, everybody else looks at us like we're better than them or something, yourself not as included in that as we've noticed. But Callie and I have been thinking about this, and why don't we hang out sometime, just you, Ora, Celine, Callie, Myself, and 3."

It sounded like a great idea to Jace. But something didn't sound right to him when she mentioned Agent 3.

"Wait, what? 3 actually has a social life? But he's so serious all the time."

Marie laughed, "He's not that bad when you get to know him. It's just that in his first days here he met Cap'n Cuttlefish and got tangled up in defeating the Octarians all on his own. He's pretty serious around everybody because there's nobody to really share that with. I'll tell you what though, are you doing anything on Friday?"

Friday was two days from then, Jace thought hard. "I'm doing nothing," he finally decided. Ora and Celine both agreed with him. Ora because she lived with Jace, she'd not be doing much that night already since nothing was planned. But the one thing that didn't make sense with that was…

"But don't you have a concert on Friday?" Celine asked.

Callie smiled, "We can meet before it. And how about you guys just come with us, enjoy the show."

Ora wasn't as shocked as Celien was, she didn't grow up watching the Squid Sister's rise to popularity, but Jace thought that Celine's jaw would be dragging on the floor for weeks.

"Go to… your concert?" She was able to manage out. Callie got a twinkle in her eye.

"Yep, backstage."

Celine made a noise like a lung had gotten lodged in her rib cage as she hyperventilated.

Before anybody else could say anything, Celine accepted and hugged Callie and Marie, almost crushing the two together. Marie roller her eyes, "This is exactly what we meant by 'treating us like we're better than them'." And Celine instantly let go with an apology. Jace shrugged at this interaction.

"She treats everyone like that. I remember back when I bought her tickets to a Squid Squad concert." He rubbed his ribs, "Ever since then my ribs have been a lot looser." The rub started to sting and hurt and Jace stopped that instantly with a slight runt. "Thanks," he continued saying, "Where do you want to meet?"

"How about our place?" Callie said, "We went to yours already, albeit with a horde of paparazzi behind us. Is that alright with you?"

Jace nodded and told her, yes, that sounded fantastic. They then exchanged addresses and debated a bit over the time to meet. By the time Jace was going back to the medical wing of the Academy on his own, he hoped that he'd be healed enough by Friday so that he could actually walk without help. At least Marie was looking like she'd be able to walk just fine come Friday. He held a hand to his ribs, they still hurt when he walked, and sighed.

"At least I'm still alive." He whispered to himself. If the suit hadn't had been on him the right way; if Pavyl hadn't taken care of the octolings; if they hadn't been able to get him back to the Academy quickly. All those would've meant instant death, no hope.

Jace walked himself back to his bed and sat down on it. The room was dark so that the two "Wellpassing thought through Jace's mind sent worry in him over whether he'd actually hurt them and made them go into a coma or something. These worry thoughts stopped as movement happened from the bed.

"Wha-?" What is this? Where am I?"

Jace watched her struggle against the bonds before answering.

"You're in the medical wing at an Inkling advanced training facility." He said, "You've been knocked out for a while and we were worried about you. I'm pretty sure that you have a lot of questions. Thankfully, I'm resting here for some wounds, so I'll be able to answer whatever questions you have."

 _After a few questions I'll walk outside and get somebody to help me. Even if she wanted to hurt me, she's restrained, so what can she do?_ Jace thought to himself.

"Who are you?" came the first question. Jace realized that in the darkness of the room, the Octoling wouldn't recognize him, even though he was the last thing they saw before being knocked out.

"My name is Jace. If the lights were on in here, you'd most likely recognize me. I was the one who… captured, you."

"You?" The Octoling struggled against her bonds, "Let me out so I can return the favor."

Jace sighed, then winced as his ribs hurt, "I don't blame you for wanting that, but I would think that capture would be a better experience than what you'd receive for failing at your duties."

"I-. How would you know that, Inkling?"

 _No need to tell her everything._ "Well am I wrong in saying that?"

Even in the darkness Jace could see the Octoling hang her head, "No, you're not. But in no way will I say thank you for that. You were both the cause and solution to that problem."

"Yes, I was. I never expected to hear a 'thank you' for what I did. However, I risked my own life by keeping you and your companion alive, alive when even other Octolings were firing on me even when they recognized you, so keep that in mind. Next question."

"Why am I still alive? You clearly know what the punishment would have been for me, it would have been simpler to let my higher-ups take care of me and my disposal."

"Because I have friends who are Octolings. I know what your hardships are and why you do what you do. I know that you aren't doing all this fighting out of hatred for us, and I don't like seeing death that could be avoided."

The shadow of an Octoling hesitated for a moment, "You know Octoli- no way. It couldn't be. But, the one you're talking about, could it possibly a female who escaped a while back?"

"Yes."

"By the name of Ora?"

"Yes, how do you know this?"

"What Octoling doesn't? Everybody in the military has to have heard her name. Most think that she's a traitor, an Octoling who tried to sell out her won squad and got them all killed by Inklings. But there's been a rumor spreading around my training camp that she ran away and was in hiding. Only a few actually believed it. I actually thought that she ran away, but was killed by the higher ups in the Octarian army. A lot of Octolings actually look up to her. She actually acted against the Octarian military knowing full well the consequences of being caught. She's the first to actually act on what some of us feel the military is: oppressive."

This got Jace's brain cells going. "And where do you stand on this matter?"

"Well," the Octoling told Jace, "I won't believe it until I see her, but I definitely look up to Ora and think that she made the right choice."

Jace nodded and smiled, resting could wait for now, "I'll be right back." He got up, ignoring the pain in his ribs, and walked out of the room. Going back to the entrance of the Academy, Jace spotted Ora walking away with Celine.

"ORA!" Jace called out. She looked back at him. "HURRY! THERE'S SOMEBODY WHO JUST WOKE UP THAT YOU NEED TO MEET, GET BACK HERE!" God that hurt his ribs.

* * *

"My god. I don't believe it. You _are_ alive." The Octoling said as Jace turned on the light to reveal Ora. Ora smiled. "I'm going to assume that the higher ups said that I'm dead, judging from your reaction to me."

"They said you're a traitor who led your squad into death."

"Yea… no. Speaking of Evan and everyone, they live with me at Jace's place. Jace was kind enough to vouch for me and give me a home to stay at."

The Octoling had surprise drawn all over her face. "Your whole squad is welcomed here too?"

Ora nodded, "Yep, and, Jace, I'm going to need to head back to the house, Evan and the gang have been hanging there for a bit and I'm going to need to make sure that they haven't gotten into any trouble. See you tomorrow, Jace. And get some sleep, you're not missing out on Friday, and that is final!"

"Got it, Ora. Bye." Missing out on Friday was definitely not part of his plans. He lay down on his bed again.

"You might want to get some rest as well." He told the Octoling. "It'll make tomorrow come faster, believe me. And odds are that tomorrow we'll figure out what's going to happen to you."


	22. Ice cream

Of course Jace was the one chosen to take care of the two young Octolings; who claimed that their names were Delfinia and Rose. To Jace, his house was becoming more of a hotel than anything. Someplace friendly Octolings could have sanctuary at. At least this time Cap'n Cuttlefish gave Jace some money to take care of his new guests. Enough money for a couple more beds and food.

And once again, a door in his house had to be locked at night. None of the girls really minded, but Jace felt like he was slighting Ora and Crista since they were trustworthy. They didn't seem to mind, since Delfinia could talk to Ora, who she really looked up to, and Rose and Crista were quiet together.

Ora seemed to view Delfinia and Rose like they were little sisters to her, and Jace shared those views. The two of them were extremely young, only thirteen for Delfinia and fourteen for Rose, and had only recently been inducted into the Octarian military.

Rose was quite shy, not brooding like Eddie was, but more like Crista in that she just didn't like talking. Delfinia was the exact opposite, she was excitable and keen to speak what's on her mind. She looked up to Ora extensively and wanted to be around her all the time. And had a strange fascination with looking like Ora.

Jace had been released to go home on Thursday, and he took Delfinia and Rose with him that day as well. On that same day, Celine and Ora decided to take Delfinia and Rose shopping for clothes. When they came home, Rose had a black, knee length skirt and red sweater on, along with gloves that had the finger tips cut off. Delfinia, on the other hand, tried to match Ora completely. All the way down to the brand of the sweater she was wearing.

When Jace saw them, he thought Ora had shrunk for a moment.

The only difference between Ora and Delfinia was the height, and the fact that Ora had different sunglasses… their faces were differently shaped.

The first night Delfinia and Rose had been in Jace's house, Jace decided to try and win their trust with a taco buffet. They didn't trust him yet, something he wasn't used to since he and Ora had hit it off right away when he vouched for her and he was kind of the guy who rescued Evan, Philip, and Crista, so why not make way to their hearts through their stomachs. While the Ora and Celine took them out shopping, Jace ran out to the nearest market and bought enough supplies to really start up his own small restaurant. Evan, Philip, and Crista helped Jace cook up the food and set it up as a "Make your own taco" buffet. Evan was even able to whip up a nice side dish that tasted quite sweet and was a good complement to the meal.

The smell definitely got Delfinia and Rose's attention. And the second they saw the food, it took all of four seconds for them to start on their seconds. Ora smiled down at the two starving girls, remembering her own first day, and dished up once they were done ravaging the buffet. Jace let everyone else eat before dishing up himself.

The meal was an absolute success. And Evan seemed to be extremely proud that his dish was so good and enjoyed. He was learning to become quite the cook. That night, Jace even offered to take Evan over to an old friend of his who was a chef and get him an official lesson. Evan seemed pretty happy about that, so long as Philip and Crista went too, they were a big part of his kitchen gig thanks to the fact that they'd worked together for so long.

As Friday rolled around, Jace was getting pretty excited. He woke up early, unable to sleep in, and got breakfast done before anybody else had woken up. He decided to forgo his normal cargo shorts and tee shirt for jeans and a collared shirt, something fancier for the occasion.

The plan was for Jace, Ora, and Celine to head over to Callie and Marie's house a little bit after lunch. Why did the clock have to go so slow today?

Since he was already awake, Jace cooked some pancakes and gave the girls all breakfast in bed. Pancakes, syrup, eggs, bacon, ham, cheese, hashbrowns… Jace could see Delfinia's mouth water from the smell alone. After she was done stuffing her face full of food, Delfinia looked at Jace. Jace had sat down next to Ora's bed and was leaning back, just smelling the fragrance of the food.

"Hey, why don't the Octarians have food like this?" Delfinia asked. Jace looked up at her, opening his eyes into the curious face. _She's so innocent…_ he thought, _how could the Octarians recruit people this young?_

Ora answered for Jace, "Because they spend most of the money and skill on how well we can fight. They don't really think we need good food." She looked at Jace, "Thankfully, the Inklings think a little differently. You're going to love all the different foods that are up here. There's so many delicious things to try out."

Jace smiled as an idea came to him, "Hey, Delfinia, I'll tell you what. Why don't I show you one of my favorite treats to get?"

That got as good of a reaction from Delfinia as he was hoping. At the mention of a food treat, her face lit up and despite the fact that she didn't trust him as much, she couldn't keep her mouth from watering.

"Oh," She said, "Yes please. That would be great, sir."

Ora scoffed, "Sir? Geez, I was never called ma'am before, not even when I was actually in the military. Why are you giving him all of the respect?"

From her bed, Crista piped up in one of the rare instances she actually spoke. "Uh, he has the food… that's all the answer you need. Speaking of which, _sir_ , mind if I have some of those treats too? I don't think we've gone out for food all that much, and that treat sounds good."

"Yeah, sure." Jace shrugged, "We could all go. I haven't shown any of you this place just yet. It's special to me."

Special indeed, it was close to him.

The girls got dressed after Jace had left, Ora teasing him by asking him if he wanted to hang around while they got changed. Jace's face went as red as a radish, and Ora laughed. "I'm just teasing you, Jace." She said, giving him a hug while pushing him out of the room.

Jace went to wake up Evan and Philip and tell them about the treat, he gave them breakfast and after around an hour of just hanging around and talking, they left. Jace guided the group out of his house and onto the street, thanking God that it was early morning and nobody else was up yet… Inklings were not known for their ability to get up early.

The col-de-sac was completely empty, and every house around Jace's had snores emanating from them. Jace led everyone towards the plaza, which was only a couple minutes of walking away, he lived relatively close. Once at the plaza, Jace hung a left and went off to the side. There were a couple of shops that nobody really frequented much. A coffee shop with a sign hanging off of itself, a shop that was selling used clothes, and an ice cream parlor. Nobody ever walked back to the shops much anymore, they were too busy with going to the big name shops instead of exploring these little ones.

A bell rang as Jace walked in the door, followed closely by his group of Octolings. From the counter, a teenage squid with a tired look on his face looked up.

"Hi, welcome to Icy Flow. Home of the original… Icy Flow. Can I _*yawn*_ help you?"

He either didn't care that six Octolings had walked into the shop, didn't notice their defining features, or didn't know what the heck they were. Jace looked at the shop keeper in the eye.

"Four Freezy Flow Floats please."

The shopkeeper looked behind him at the menu above the counter. There was no Freezy Flow Float on it.

"I'm sorry dude, I didn't exactly understand what you said. Did you say our Flair Floats?"

Jace shook his head, "No… I know exactly what I said. I'd like four Freezy Flow Floats. I know that you still know how to make them. David teaches every employee how to make them."

The teen squid scratched at a bit of acne on his chin. "Dude, I legitimately have no clue. I have never heard of those." But Jace motioned him aside and started whispering in his ear. Once he was done, some recognition formed on the squid's face and he looked at Jace again. "Yes sir, I'll go back and get him right now."

He went to the back room and came out with another squid, this one dressed in a classic ice cream maker's clothes with a white moustache and white hair. When he saw Jace, the squid called out to him like Jace was an old friend.

"Jace? Wow, I haven't seen you around here in a while." The older squid smiled warmly, "So… would you like your usual?"

"I'm going to need seven of them. One for me, one for each of my friends." Jace gestured to everyone. The older Inkling nodded, not bothering, or not caring, to notice the Octolings either.

"Yep. I'll be right out with them. Don't you worry. Just give me a minute."

When the shopkeeper came back out, he had several ice cream floats on a platter. One for Jace and each of his friends. The shopkeeper handed them out and, not bothering to ask for payment, walked back inside his office with a friendly word to Jace. Crista looked at her ice cream.

"What is this?" She asked, watching it start to melt a little bit onto her hand. Jace lifted his face up from where he had already started to dig into his float.

"This is ice cream. It's a special treat that is really tasty." Jace took another bite, "Careful, it's really cold. But very good." Another bite down his gullet. "This ice cream in particular has a special place in my heart."

Ora walked over to Jace, already nibbling on her float. "How so?"

Jace stopped eating his ice cream. "It's where I always used to go with my family whenever we visited Inkopolis. This was our spot to end the day. We never failed to visit here when we came into the big city."

He took another bite, resuming his eating of the ice cream. Ora looked at him, "Why'd the owner say that he hadn't seen you around in a while?"

"I haven't come back to this shop for seven years. Since my mother and father passed away."

Jace set down his ice cream. "But it's different now. I've been thinking of you guys in terms of family now. Yes, even you Delfinia, and you too, Rose, you're staying with us now, you're part of our family. So, I want you to know what having ice cream with your family feels like, and I sort of wanted to feel this again."

Rose walked over to Jace and hugged him around his chest, she was still rather short. "Thanks, Jace."

She squeezed tight, and Jace set down his ice cream and set a hand on her back. "Of course. Now, you might want to enjoy your ice cream. It's going to get all melty. And we've got to get back eventually, Ora and I have an interesting day to look forward to."


	23. Callie and Marie's

Waiting for something always seemed to make it take a hundred times longer to get to. The clock seemed to creep forward as slowly as it possibly could. To pass the time, Jace grabbed his gun and walked over to the turf wars. He jumped into a few games and nearly instantly made his opponents hate him for how good he was. None of them could even touch him, they thought he was cheating in some way. Thankfully, Jace wasn't wearing his suit, otherwise he would've actually been in trouble when a supervisor inspected him because of the other player's claims.

By the time Jace got home, he was smiling, everybody who accused him of cheating had ink between their eyes at the end of the day.

At home, Evan was making a late lunch for everyone, Ora and Delfinia were playing a turf war themed board game while Philip and Crista as they watched the television with Rose, who was engrossed in a turf war match that was on.

Rose motioned to the T.V. when she saw Jace. "We saw your matches," she said, "They were being showcased the second they heard about an 'upstart rookie' who was playing. Even had some stand in announcers who were talking all about how you move around the battlefield."

Jace shrugged, "Wasn't all me, my team helped."

"You splatted your opponents forty-seven times in one match while they didn't even touch you once. Your team mates, on the other hand, splatted the enemy five times and got splatted twelve times." Rose smiled and pointed at Jace's clothes, "Look, you weren't hit once."

Again, Jace could only shrug. It wasn't like those fights really mattered. But then again, he was never this good before studying at the academy. He could barely hold his own against any players awarded the A-rank by the Turf Wars board of directors, now he was wiping the floor with all of them and they hated him because of it.

"Eh, at least I made some money since everybody started betting on my team to win. But I should probably change into something a little nicer than what my Turf War gear is, Ora and I will have to go in a little bit." Jace looked at where Delfinia was kicking Ora's butt at the board game. "Hey, Ora, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, but gie me a minute so I can finish Delfinia off."

Delfinia laughed and rolled the dice, "Hardly, I've been ahead of you the whole game." She moved her character a few spaces and picked up a card. "Attacked by a Krak-On roller and must retreat to mid, lose a turn. Dang it!"

When Jace came back down after getting changed, it was once again Delfinia's turn. Just now, Ora's character was ahead.

At least until Delfinia rolled double sixes, got a card that gave her an inkbrush which basically meant a double turn, and rolled an eleven, winning the game.

"Well the," she said, "Good game, Ora. This was fun. I like Inkling board games, they're nicer to play than what we had."

Ora was looking at the dice, trying to see if they were a loaded pair. Jace helped her check for a moment, "What did you have?"

"Nothing." Ora replied, "There was no recreational period." She determined that the dice were completely luck and not cheating, smiled, and stood up to stretch. "Beginner's luck, Delfinia, I'll win next time. Ready to go, Jace?"

They left Jace's place and walked over to Celine's house, picked her up, and then tried to figure out which way they needed to go to get to Callie and Marie's house. The address Callie gave them was somewhere in the Northern portion of Inkopolis, past the turf war arenas and where the wealthier squids lived.

The trio walked past the different parks and areas that made up the turf war arenas, noticing a few battles taking place in the meantime between different C-rank squids who, to Jace, could hardly tell one end of a paintbrush from the other. They kept trying to use outdated tactics that those at the Academy had trained against for around a day before learning to counter.

After the arenas came a skyscraper filled downtown. While the plaza was the most popular area, the downtown was where most of those grown up hung out. There were plenty of bars and pubs, punctuated by high end restaurants and a single turf war arena. The turf war arena was one that nobody ever got to use unless you had tens of thousands of points just ready to be blown by the hourly rent. It was basically for the use of a select few who had money, but no skill.

Jace hadn't been down in this area often, mostly because whenever he came here he ended up spending too much money, but it was always a sight to see. There were neon signs absolutely everywhere, each skyscraping being some sort of major corporation or brand. Jace saw a restaurant crowded to its brim and two teen girls screaming out that Squid Squad was over there and everybody needed to see.

They passed by one of the more popular restaurants, a spot named "The Sixth Star", and Jace smelled something really good coming out of the kitchen. It had to be able to turn anybody's head, no wonder the kitchen had always been at the top… of the cost and of the charts.

Ora had never been to the downtown, so Celine and Jace took time to point out all of the cool sights that were all over the place. It was almost too much for Ora to see at once. All the flashing lights and neon and car horns and screams of joy.

"So they said that they lived in room 380 of this building." Jace said, looking at the address he had written down, then back to the building they had walked up to.

It was massive, had to be one of the higher buildings in the whole of the downtown, and had balconies all up it with squids hanging out and partying like there was no tomorrow. As Jace watched, a chair came flying off of one of the middle balconies and landed in the street with a crash. Splinters flew everywhere and cars honked as they swerved to avoid the debris. A cleaning crew to the side sighed and walked forwards to clean it up efficiently, they must've been there precisely for that job.

The inside was just as impressive. The place was like a thirty star hotel, if they even had those, and was fancier than any place Jace had seen before.

A host desk held a pretty girl squid in a dress behind it, who motioned for Jace to come over. As he walked over she sniffed and looked at his outfit like he was dirty, then hid her disgust behind a masquerade of professionalism.

"Hello there, sir, do you have any business here?"

Jace looked at the girl, she had too much makeup to be pretty, "Yeah, we're going up to room 380. My name's Jace, I think Callie and Marie are expecting us."

The hostess squid typed a few things into her computer, frowned, and looked at the computer screen. "It says here that those renting that room are named Vivian and Mariana. Are you sure you have the right number?"

"Yeah, pretty sure. They said that it was room 380. Can I go up and check?"

The hostess rushed to deny that, "No, no sir. Of course not. We appreciate your concern, but we'd rather that you did not disturb our guests. That would be most inappropriate of us to let you go up and do that. Why don't you wait down here, I'll call them down. We have a couple of seats over there." She motioned to the door. "I don't know if they will even come down to check, I'll tell them that Jason said that he was downstairs."

"Jace."

"Whatever."

Jace motioned for Ora and Celine to sit down where the hostess told them to, but stayed near the desk just off to the side of the hostess' vision. She picked up a phone and dialed in a number, "Yes. Callie, Marie, I think there's another fan here who figure out where you live. I've already done some precautionary measures but now what should I do? His name? He said that his name was Jace, he said that he knows you and you were expecting him."

The hostess gave a slight start in surprise, "Let him? Are you sure? Okay then."

She set the phone back down and motioned for Ora and Celine to come back up. Jace walked back into her vision, "Thanks for checking. I was telling the truth."

The hostess didn't look too happy about Jace listening in to her conversation, but she tried valiantly to smile politely… failing miserably. She really didn't like Jace. "You can go up to their room taking the elevator on the left. They're room is located on the fiftieth floor and should be somewhere to your right when you exit the elevator. Thank you for visiting us today."

"Yeah, thanks." Celine said to her.

The elevator was just as fancy as the foyer, covered in red silk and with a soda machine in the elevator. _Who even puts a soda machine in an elevator? That's definitely interesting._ Jace thought, _this hotel is too rich for their own good._

The Squid Squad's most recent song was on the elevator, Jace didn't even think that it was out to the public just yet. They'd hardly recorded it. He hadn't heard it anywhere else yet.

He was happy to be out of the elevator, it made him feel poor in comparison to these money bound moguls who lived in the hotel. This floor seemed to be a somewhat simpler floor compared to what he had seen in the foyer and elevator, it was much less fancy, had more simple decorations instead of extravagant pictures. But, of course, it was still lucrative.

 _Knock, knock._

Callie was the one who opened the door to 380. "Hey, guys, come on in. I hope the receptionist didn't give you any trouble."

Jace shook his head, "No. She was quite helpful."

The inside of Callie and Marie's room was even simpler than the outside floor. It reminded Jace of what a normal person would live in. Marie was just chilling on a couch in front of an, albeit larger than normal, television which had a few ranked matches playing at the same time. Rainmaker at Arowana Mall, Splat Zones at a couple others that Jace didn't recognize from a quick glance, and a Splat Zone at what Jace assumed was the arena for the rich. Marie got up from the couch carefully, her legs must've still been sore, and gave Jace a hug.

"Hi there, guys. Agent 3 isn't here yet. He should be here in just a minute, though. Would you like something to eat or drink?" Celine shook her head at that, but Ora was curious about what they had.

"Soda, juice, most everything in between. The hotel seems to want to give us stuff. Probably to keep us here. We keep having to move since people keep figuring out where we live. I assume that the receptionist held you back for a bit since Callie was on the phone. She seems to like the fact that she's helping us stay innocuous."

"No thanks," Ora said, "I'm good for now. What do you want to do?"

Marie hit a button on a remote and the most recent video game based on the Turf Wars where the Octarians were defeated. "How about this?"

Jace hadn't ever seen the most recent video game system, he was more than down to play it.

It turned out that Celine kicked all of their butts at the game. At least, until Agent 3 showed up and took them to town on the whole game. He should've gone to some sort of a tournament for the game or something, he was that good.

They played that for a bit until Callie and Marie decided to take them out to eat. Of course at the Sixth Star. And then they headed to the affluent Turf War arena for Callie and Marie's concert. Jace could still hardly believe it.


	24. To the Concert

They didn't even bother hailing a cab or driving around the downtown area. Callie and Marie just walked with their friends like any other people would walk through the downtown, pointing out cool things and people along the way.

"Hey, you know who that guy is? President of the clothing brand, Skalop." Callie pointed out a jelly fish walking into a bar. "He tried to get us to use some of his clothes on stage for some advertisement, but after he hit on the both of us in the weirdest ways, we denied. He kept making stupid jelly fish puns and tried to ask us both out, and he's twice our ages."

Celine watched him for a moment, "I wonder why he thought he had a chance with the both of you."

Marie shrugged, "He's obsessed with younger squids. Odds are that he's going into that bar to try and hit on more young girls, the pervert."

The next person Marie and Callie pointed out was the drummer to High Tide Era, the popular band, who was going out with his girlfriend, and being stalked by around a thousand fangirls. As Jace watched, one of the fangirls got close enough to touch him, touched the drummer's back, and screamed loud enough to crack the glass of the nearby restaurant. From where he was walking on the other side of the street, Jace physically flinched at the noise. He could only imagine how painful it must have been for the poor guy and his girlfriend, but they could be used to it.

He remembered the crowd surrounding the restaurant the Squid Squad was visiting earlier, Callie and Marie were just as popular as them, why wasn't there a crowd behind the two of them? There wasn't anybody who was trying to touch Callie or Marie, or get a piece of their outfits, or a lock of hair… or who knows what the rabid fans do these days. Jace leaned over during a break in the conversation.

"Doesn't that kind of stuff happen to you guys?" he asked, gesturing across the street at the drummer, "People following you around the city doing crazy fangirl stuff."

Agent 3 rolled his eyes, "Take a moment and look behind us."

Jace spun for a moment, as if taking in the sights of the city, and stared behind himself. Not ten feet away was a group of around one hundred squids of assorted gender taking pictures. When Jace looked at all of them, they all quickly acted like they weren't doing anything weird at all, and some even hid the cameras they had.

But nearly all of them looked right back at Jace like they were wondering who the heck he was. Jace turned around again to see Agent 3's smile. "Prepare yourself," 3 said, "They saw your face. Now you're instantly popular since you're around these two. You're not going to be able to go into public much anymore without somebody following you around."

"Are you sure? They don't know me at all. I haven't done anything of notice."

Jace turned around again to get another look, but that was a mistake, there were flashes of light everywhere for a moment as hundreds of pictures were taken of Jace's face.

He turned back to facing forwards, "Crap."

This elicited a chuckle from Callie and Marie, Callie smiled warmly, "Don't worry. You'll get used to it. Agent 3 hardly goes out as it is, so he doesn't get the majority of it. But you'll get used to people following you around. Heck, you may have your face in the news more."

This got Jace's ink-blood running cold. "Wait, what?" He asked, "But I don't want that. Doesn't that put the Academy at greater risk-"

Marie put her hand over Jace's mouth, "Don't say anything about there in front of any form of cameras, you don't know what they'd pick up." Then she laughed like Jace had said something funny and went back to talking with Celine, the moment of seriousness over.

The group of them walked a couple of blocks before hanging a right and walking that way for a while more. As they walked, the crowd of squids behind them grew and grew and grew until it numbered a couple hundred squids. There were constant flashes of light now as photos were continuously taken of the Squid Sisters and their friends. Jace could hear the squids behind them speculating about who Jace, Ora, Celine, and Agent 3 were. It was so weird actually being the center of attention for once, and Jace didn't know how Callie and Marie could stand it. There was no privacy at all, their speech had to be censored in case the cameras picked up something weird, and everybody they met seemed to follow them down the street.

Callie and Marie didn't seem to care, they just kept talking like it was any other day, and Agent 3 just played it cool like he always did. The only ones phased by this were Ora and Jace, Celine just rolled with it like Agent 3 was doing.

A few more blocks walked and a couple more turns and the turf wars arena loomed in front of them suddenly. It was even bigger up close, absolutely massive. Jace wondered what the inside looked like, it was never a televised arena. He didn't have to wait long to see it, Callie and Marie waved to the security at the front gate, who moved aside with a curt nod, and they walked in. Jace could still feel the flashes and clicks of cameras behind him as they walked in, but soon they turned a corner and the flashes stopped.

"It's going to be harder to go out now," Jace told Ora, "People will know our faces."

"Your face," she said back, "I never turned around."

They traveled past some more security, past even more security, past a couple of crazed fans who had snuck past the security (Jace had to almost tackle the bunch of fans), until they finally reached the backstage. While Callie and Marie went to go get changed into their normal outfits that the fans would recognize them in, Jace, Celine, Ora, and Agent 3 simply hung out near the security squids and talked. There was a sort of sweets buffet filled to the brim with donuts, hard candy, and other pastries, so Jace had a little snack session while waiting as well.

Ora smacked his arm when he came back with an armful of donuts and pastries. "Did you really need to get all of that?"

"Yeah," Jace told her, smiling with full cheeks like a chipmunk would, "I'm a growing squid, I need my food."

That elicited a laugh from Celine, "You're seventeen, Jace, there's no way that you're still going to grow that much. All that food will just go to waste in you."

By the time she finished her sentence, Jace was already heading back to the table for seconds, the original armful of sweets having disappeared down his gullet. Ora had to latch herself onto his arm and drag Jace back to the group before he polished off the entire buffet.

Agent 3 merely shrugged, "It doesn't bother me either way, Callie and Marie never eat those anyway before the show. It messes with their singing voices, they mostly just let the security and whoever bought backstage passes eat it. But it doesn't look like anybody bought backstage passes for this one, they would have been here by now pestering those two."

The backstage was, in general, kind of dreary. There was no style to it at all, something no squid would be found without. The backstage was extremely pragmatic, almost to the point of being barren. There was a room for Callie and Marie to change in, a room for security, the buffet table, a couple of chairs, the sound board, but nothing else… it was like this was planned specifically to be a little bit boring.

When Callie and Marie reappeared to the group, they were dressed in their classic outfits. Callie in her pink shorts costume and Marie in her lime green skirt. They struck the classic 'squid sister' pose, then broke down laughing.

"The fans eat that up." The two cousins were trying to say, but could hardly get out through the laughter. The sentence came out more along the lines of "th- _snort_ \- eh – _chuckle_ \- ans eat tha- _snort_ \- up."

Ora looked at them with a confused expression, "I'm… sorry?" She said. Callie, wiped tears out of her eyes.

"Sorry. We meant to say that the fans eat that up. Whenever we do that pose, the fans all go crazy in the crowd, and we never started that pose on purpose."

Marie smiled and finished Callie's sentence, "I tripped over Callie's foot one performance back when we were just starting out as pop stars, and when trying to balance, I did the pose. Callie saw me do this and thought I did it on purpose, so she mirrored me, and the fans went wild. Ever since then, we've used the pose I used to stop myself from face planting into the stage."

"Believe me," Callie told Jace, "She pulled off that look really well, I totally thought that she had done the pose on purpose… Marie was born to do that move."

Agent 3 took a bite out of a croissant that was from the pastry table. "Meh, both of you look good while doing it. Doesn't matter what pose you do, you'll look good while doing it, and the fans will always love you."

"Thanks, 3." Marie told him, then a confused look crossed her face. "3, do you have any other name? We've always known you as Agent 3, that's what Grandpa Cuttlefish told the both of us, does he even know your name?"

3 shook his head.

"Nope."

"Well," Marie pressed, "I've always been curious, what is your name?"

Agent 3 looked at Jace, Celine, Ora, and Callie, then motioned Marie away from the group. They walked off together and disappeared around a corner. Callie nudged Celine, "She's been trying to figure this out for all these months we've known him. I think that she likes 3."

The group let Marie and 3 have their privacy by walking towards the on stage area. The stage itself had been set up in the middle of a fancy skate park that seemed to be along the same designs as Blackbelly skatepark… just so much fancier. There wasn't ink everywhere. No permanent graffiti. Instead it was as pristine as the skatepark had been when it first opened. The stage was open, with a walkway going ten feet into where the crowd would be, allowing for the Callie and Marie to walk out there without risking walking into the crowd.

The whole crowd area could probably have thousands of squids at once screaming and partying with the squid sister's music.

Callie sat down on the walkway's edge and looked at the arena. "Doesn't this just look like Blackbelly skatepark? Just… nicer?"

"Yep," Celine said, "I bet you that this was built exactly like the skatepark."

They hung out there until 3 and Marie got back. Something was different, Jace could tell. It could have been the confidence that 3 seemed to have, or the happiness radiating from Marie. Or the fact that 3 was holding Marie's hand, and she was clinging to him like ink to a squid.

Jace was willing to take a wild stab in the dark that they 3 just may have asked out Marie...

 **a/n: sorry about the shoddy update schedule... ive been trying to update everything, but life is getting in the way. I hope you enjoiy the chapter.**


	25. Love's in the air

That may have been Jace's guess, but he was skeptical of the two's relationship as maybe just a prank or a joke. Of course, the second Marie kissed 3 in front of him, his jaw dropped and he paused for a good long moment. To his right, Callie stared in awe. She moved her mouth like words were in her head, but she couldn't put her thoughts into voice.

Agent 3 looked like the happiest squid alive when Marie detached herself form his face, he had a massive grin spread from ear to ear. Jace had never seen him with anything happier than a sly smile, the grin looked like some sort of a stranger had taken over Agent 3.

"What happened back there, you two?" Celine asked Marie and 3, "I don't think he only told you his name."

Jace couldn't believe it. Celine was completely nonplussed by the sudden relationship between two people who he really didn't expect to get together. She was completely unaffected.

Marie smiled mischievously, "Kear- I mean 3, here asked me out. What did it look like?"

A shrug from Celine, "Exactly that. I just wanted to hear you say it."

"Go figure."

"So that's why you've been trying to get his attention." Callie had found her voice, "You've been trying to get him to ask you out." Callie smiled warmly, "I'm so happy for you, Marie, I always thought that you and 3 would be together, and since this doofus," she pointed at 3, "finally asked you out, I think you'll be great together. But, 3, treat Marie right, or else you'll have the agent who's been an agent before anybody else after your ass."

3 nodded, "Of course. I'd not do anything to her, ever. And were you really trying to get my attention?" He asked Marie. Marie nodded and smiled, "I've been interested in you for months now, I just thought you were more interested in Callie."

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in Callie, but she never held my thoughts the way you did. No offense," he added to Callie, who shrugged in a 'none taken' gesture. "But I noticed when you would try to get me to be around you. It was a little hard not to, but I was really happy. It gave me an excuse to talk to you. But I was always afraid to ask you out… I don't know. I can fight hordes of Octarians without trouble, but give me a girl any day to ask out and I'll be shaking in my boots."

Jace looked at Ora and Celine while 3 and Marie were talking. Celine was still not affected by the conversation, like she expected it the whole time. Ora, on the other hand, was smiling in happy surprise and looked back at Jace. When she realized he was looking right at her, she winked.

"Hey! Squid Sisters! We've got five minutes before we let in the fans! Get backstage and warm up your voices for the show!" A squid's voice came on over a P.A. system on the stage. Callie groaned, "Come backstage with us. You can watch the show from wherever you want, but at least hang out back there until the show starts, it gets really lonely."

So they went backstage, listening to Callie and Marie warm up their voices and talked amongst themselves while the ambiance of clamoring squids slowly got louder outside.

Around ten minutes before it was time for the show, a rabid fan showed up in the backstage entrance. It was some sort of an insane dude in a walking squid sister's advertisement of an outfit.

"CALLIE! MARIE! MARRY ME!" He screamed out as loud as possible before getting tackled by security and forcefully escorted out.

Marie sighed, "If only he was a little calmer. We would've stopped security and talked with him, that's generally what we do with fans. But as it is… he seemed more at home in an insane asylum."

"You get weirdos at every event." Callie said. "Well, it's almost time. Use these passes to get anywhere you want. All the food is free, all the spots are open, do whatever you want to do." She handed Jace, 3, Ora, and Celine passes with the letters V.I.P. on them.

"When the show's over, come back here."

Jace, 3, Ora, and Celine used the passes to get into the first row of the show stage before Callie and Marie came out. When they showed their tickets to the security guard, the guard told them to be careful as they could be trampled by rabid fans.

They took their spots only a minute before Callie and Marie came out with their first song. After the first line, 3 smiled, "Remember the Octarian who's trapped in the snowglobe-like thing?" He asked Jace over the music.

"Yeah, wasn't his name Octavio?"

"Yep. When I was fighting him and his army, the fight went south. Octavio had the upper hand and was about to take me down when Callie and Marie hacked his war machine. They played this song from it, and I started to kick Octavio's butt. I think that the song invigorated me. I have no clue how, but it seemed like Octavio's attacks came slower and I could move faster, like I was pumped full of energy. Watch the crowd, you'll see. This happens every time I hear this song, and I think it works on others too."

And sure enough, everybody in the crowd seemed to be filled with energy. All the squids looked like they'd been injected with pure caffeine, and Jace could feel his own senses getting faster, heightening. Everything around him slowed, even though he could still move like normal and hear things in real time, but it was like everything was moving underwater.

This was what it must have felt like to Ora when she used her suit's super speed function. Time relatively felt slower as she moved faster. Sheldon technically invented a machine to induce slow motion.

"Holy crap." Jace said. "Ora, is this what it feels like to have your super speed?"

But Ora and Celine weren't at his side any more. Jace turned around, scanning for his two friends.

"Ora! Celine!"

3 turned around as well, "What's wrong, Jace?"

"I can't see Ora or Celine."

"They probably went to go use the restroom or get something to eat," 3 told Jace as Callie and Marie finished their first song, "don't worry about them. They're fine."

From the stage, Callie and Marie struck their classic squid sister's pose. The crowd exploded into cheers. "Hello Inkopolis!" Callie screamed into her mic. More screams from the crowd. "How are we all doing tonight?"

Marie held up her hand to quiet down the screaming that ensued.

"I'll take that as you're doing great. Our next song is a for a little somebody in the crowd right now. You know who you are."

Almost half of the male squids in the crowd passed out thinking that it was for them. But 3 merely smiled and looked Marie right in the eye.

The next couple of songs passed, and still no Ora or Celine. But right when the bars for the fifth song came on, Celine and Ora showed up almost dragging two other squids. Jace waved when he saw them.

"Guess who we saw, Jace!" ora shrieked over the music, and sure enough, those she and Celine had brought looked up, and Jace looked into the faces of Crista and Eddie.

"Hey Eddie," Jace said cheerfully, pleasantly surprised to see the two of them, especially when Crista seemed to never get out of the house. "Hiya Crista!"

There was something up, Crista was way too shy and stayed inside too much to go to a concert on her own. Jace thought to himself. He decided to question them.

"What's the two of you doing over here?" He asked them. Eddie frowned, "Jace, can I talk with you for a moment? In private?"

Despite the loud music blasting over them, Jace could still hear Eddie's voice even when he was talking normally. "Yeah, sure. I'm fine with that." They walked off to the side and Jace looked at the normally shy Eddie, "What's up?"

"I asked Crista out." Eddie said plainly, "I asked her out, and that's why we're here. I should've asked your permission first since you've been sort of like the 'big brother' to the Octarians who live here. So, here we go, can I go out with Crista? I've been really interested in her since she came to the Academy after you rescued her, and she seems really interested in me too. Can I go out with her?"

Jace was surprised he was so forthcoming. He had hardly talked with Eddie, despite sitting with him all the time at lunch and in the shooting range. Eddie hardly talked to anybody, maybe the relationship would be good for him.

"Yeah. I'm fine with it. Go for it, man."

The night seemed to be one filled with relationship, Jace thought to himself, maybe I'll get lucky and find my courage. He looked at Ora again as she was dancing to the music. Jace felt his heart and stomach take a leap in his gut as it settled somewhere around his adam's apple. It was guilt, he'd been interested in Celine all these years only to be interested by Ora… that feeling was definitely guilt. Or maybe I can take a little while longer to think about it.

 **A/N: sorry about the shoddy update schedule, a lot of stuff in life has got in the way. But i can say that I will be back to normal scheduling. Splaticide will be out every week on thursdays, and there will be nothing that stops me from uploading. Ships are still open, save for those now closed in this chapter, and I'm still taking tallys on who Jace should ship with, so give me a comment saying who you'd rather he be with. And As Always, Have a Great Day, Dlahm OUT!**


	26. Squads

Preparations for the siege of Inkopolis began on Monday at the Splat Academy. All the classes and levels combined into a singular mass to practice and learn the info specifically designed for the siege. It was awe inspiring to see so many squids in one place with the height of skill known only to the Splat Academy. A couple more squids had joined the academy in recent days, including Rose and Delfinia, and their numbers had risen to a solid seventy squids enrolled.

Advanced combat movement class put their current lesson, close quarter's combat movement, on hold for the whole group so that they could work on moving through a hostile territory (something Jace, Azure, Ivy and Pavyl's squads had already had experience in). Marie had Jace, Ivy, Celine, and Azure demonstrate the drill. The goal of the drill was to get through the room (which had been set up with multiple obstructions just for this purpose) without being hit once by all the other squids, who would set themselves up and fire on the group moving through.

Jace would've preferred switching out Azure or Ivy with Ora since they worked better as a team, but the drill would've been too dangerous for her to take part in. Too much Inkling ink flying around.

Ivy took point with the group, her blaster being the shortest range, Jace was support in the back while Celine and Azure were in the middle with their splattershots. They made their way through the whole course with only Azure taking a hit to her leg.

The other groups didn't do as well. They all worked well as teams, but just went way too fast and weren't careful enough to come out intact. They would have all been destroyed by Octolings because they weren't working carefully enough.

Marie then gave the groups a ton of a ton of examples and practices that they could do to get better. "This is going to be the kind of fighting that you'll use if our defenses fail." She said after giving the assignments, "We'll be fighting in the streets of Inkopolis with enemies all around, you need to learn to fight like this. Of course, this won't be as necessary if we can repel the attack, but it's better that you know right now in case it's too late."

She had them do the drills for the rest of the class.

For firing range, Agent 3 took everybody out to an adjacent platform and had them do drills all about concentrating fire, and fighting as an army instead of as small teams. They started off with firing as a group in certain ways to provide an area of effect that could ink a whole platform at once.

"Form up!" 3 called out after they had explained the drill in depth. All seventy squids got into a position relative to their weapon. Chargers went to the back while the less range a weapon had meant the closer to the front they were. Brushes and rollers were on the absolute front lines.

"Ready! Aim!" 3 held up his hand.

"FIRE!" 3 Screamed out the time honored commander's phrase. His hand dropped. All the weapons unleashed a volley of ink.

Jace smiled as he saw the effect their ink had. Everything fifty feet in front of the group was completely drenched in ink. Any Octarians dumb enough to charge their lines would've been a puddle of purple before they could do anything to defend themselves.

Then they practiced moving as units with coordination given by radio commands from 3. Most units were simply the teams of four that normally made up turf war teams. Except for Jace, he was the exception. He led a massive team of seven, not including himself. Ora, Celine, Rose, Evan, Delfinia, Philip, and Crista all looked to him as the leader.

During the drill, they acted like any other team, but Agent 3 told him that when they got to strategy with Callie, they'd need to act as something a little different.

While the other two agents had worked on fighting as a team, Callie was the agent who actually made the teams. While every team was charge of fighting as one unit, there had to be more organization than that.

"Okay, everybody, divide up into your units!" Callie called out to the large group of squids. Everybody immediately attached themselves to their teammates.

Callie moved around the teams, assigning them squad numbers, when she came to Jace, she gave him and his unit the number 6. Jace nodded. When she was done, Callie called out again.

"Divide up into squads one through six! One in the front, six in the back of the classroom!"

Jace walked to the back of the strategy classroom with the rest of his team. They were the only ones in squad six, the majority of everybody else being squads one and two. Squad four had some of widely regarded 'best' teams in the Splat Academy, five only had chargers, and three was filled with the teams that upgraded and modified weapons, but most of the students were in one and two.

"Squad one, you are going to be the squad to face the enemy head on. You are our first line of defense, and hopefully, our last. You are going to be those that fight the enemy on our grounds, our terms, and you are going to have one of the largest impacts of all the squads. Your fighting will take place in your units of four, fighting diversely as a whole squad in order to defend the Academy. Squad two, your job is as a backup to squad one. You will switch out with units in squad one at any time, bolstering their ranks if they need the boost in units, and fighting hard. If squad one defends our Academy successfully, it will be because of your ability to jump and out of the fray to keep them fighting at full strength. You must be able to cover the squad one units with impunity, and you'll be the second wave when squad one tires. Squad three, you are our specialty team, you are here to maintain defenses and provide our units with weapons that could keep them alive. Squad four, you're the best of the best on the splat zones and off. You're going to be our squad that is kept for back up at all times. If there's any spot in the lines that we need you to go and take down anybody important or any war machine, you'll be who we go to. Squad five, you're our support group. Any Octarian that shows their face, blast it off from here. Squad six." Callie looked at Jace, "You're going to be a special group. Since your familiarity with Octarians, I've decided to line you up to go behind enemy lines before this confrontation and start up something to recruit Octarians who don't want to fight. Thanks to the present company," she pointed to Rose, Delfinia, Ora, Evan, Philip, and Crista, "We know that this is a possibility. You're going to go on special missions to start this. How you start this and how you go about doing this is up to you. During the siege, you'll act with squad four, just as an Octoling-Inkling unit, or U.I.U for short."

Callie readdressed the entire group, "That's it. Begin introducing yourselves to the rest of your squadmates. We want you working as a team by the end of this week."

While the rest of the squids began talking amongst themselves about how many Octarians they would kill over the siege, Callie made her way over to Jace's squad.

"Hey, can I have a word?" She asked. Jace nodded, "Yeah, sure. That's fine." And made his excuses to Evan and Rose, who he was talking to about the 'go behind enemy lines' purpose of their squad.

"So what's up, Callie?" Jace said, putting his hands in his pockets. His Gal sloshed around in its holster, and his Octobrush rattled in its sheath.

Callie smiled, "I wanted to talk about your mission. You've got the only mission to go and recruit people… other than us agents, we'll be recruiting squids in the next month so that way we could train them. Any later and they wouldn't be trained enough. But what I really wanted to ask, was what you thought when I said what your purpose was?"

Jace pursed his lips for a moment. He thought. "Well. The first thing I had thought of was that when we rescued Ora, we then saved those she thought would agree with her. What if we did the same thing, just with Rose and Delfinia's choices."

He looked up, Callie was nodding at his words. Spurred on, Jace continued. "From there I thought, 'well what if we get their choices, and their choices, until every Octarian in the army who wanted to come could leave the army and join with us.' But then I realized that there was a large flaw in the plan. On that scale, we couldn't screen every Octarian, we might get a few that would completely ruin everything and spy on us for the enemy. From there, I think that we should limit the amount of Octarians recovered by creating a series of safe houses and only letting those we know are dedicated come to fight with us. We'd limit our amount of Octarian resources, but we'd be able to lessen the enemy forces by allowing Octarians to hide while strengthening our own with Octarian knowledge and manpower."

He stopped, and Callie tilted her head and placed her hands on her hips. "That makes sense, but we'd need people to run the safe houses, and a way to screen the Octarians."

"Evan, Philip, and Crista. They're pacifists, they don't want to fight. They don't like it. But they have been mimicking what I've done here. They'd be perfect for the job so long as we can screen a small amount of Octarians to determine their loyalties in order to have them protect Evan, Philip, and Crista and keep their location secret."

"I'll run this idea up to the Cap'n. I think that he'll like it, but I'm not sure. There's a lot of spots this plan could go wrong."

Jace nodded. "You're right about that. There's a ton of What-Ifs in the plan. What if somebody escapes to alert the Octarian forces about the safe houses, what if somebody passes screening, what if they're discovered. The only thing we can do, is plan for that, otherwise we'd be murdering those who have no will to fight us and would rather be fighting with us. We'd be wasting innocent lives."

Those words seemed to set Callie back on her haunches and weigh on her thoughts. "I'll go talk to Cuttlefish about this."


	27. Confession

One of the first signs that they were in legitimate war preparations was when Ora was cleaning her E-Liter 3k in the weapon armory of the firing range. She was just putting the E-Liter back together after oiling it when Agent 3 and Marie walked through with clipboards.

They checked off each weapon in the armory, then left. When Ora found 3 and Marie and asked the two what they'd been doing, they had told her that they were taking inventory of every weapon so that it could be upgraded by their mechanic squads. "We want every advantage we can get for the coming battle." Were 3's exact words.

The next sign Ora noticed was the disappearance of Jace. Nearly every night, without fail, when they got home from the academy, Jace would grab a quick bite of whatever food there was and head back to the academy.

"What in the world is he doing every night?" Rose asked Ora one night after Jace had left. Ora shrugged, "I have no clue. He's probably working hard, trying to get a plan figured out."

Ora sighed, "He's got a lot of stuff to do. He's shouldering tasks that would normally take a whole group of squids to work on. It's taking a toll on him."

"Are you worried about him?" Rose asked sweetly. Ora took a second before answering.

"Yeah," She said, "I am. I think he's trying to do too much. He cares about all of us too much, there's nothing he won't do to protect us, but he can't protect us all if he's working too hard. He's going to collapse. Then he'll feel horrible that he wasn't doing his best and work himself harder. It'll be too much for him.

"Do you like him?" Rose's question was still sweet, but innocent it was most definitely not. Ora looked at Rose with a raised eyebrow. Rose merely gave a smile in return to the look.

"Yeah," Ora said again, "I guess I do."

"Why?"

Rose really needed to stop asking those questions, they were getting a little personal, but Ora answered it anyway.

"Well, you don't know this yet, but do you remember when I had escaped the military?"

She nodded.

"Well. When I ran away, I ran to just below the surface of Inkopolis. I hid myself. But when Jace and I crossed paths, I followed him to the surface. This was before I knew any Inklings and I still thought that they were what we were told in the military… evil. Jace sensed me watching him, and looked for me. When he found me, I attacked him. As I tried to murder him, Celine came to his side and slammed the side of her gun into me and knocked me out. Soon after that, even though I had attacked him, Jace vouched for me. He allowed me into his home, fed me, clothed me… accepted me. I had tried to kill him, and he gave me a home. I've lived here for month snow, living with Jace, and learning what he's like. With every iota of information I learn about him, I fall a little farther for him."

Rose smiled softly, and grabbed Ora's hand, "I think that's good. You should ask him to go out with you. I think that the two of you would be really good together."

A pang of guilt twanged in Ora. "He still wouldn't want me." She said bitterly, "He likes Celine. She's been his friend for much, much, longer. And that's just how it's going to be. Celine is the freaking luckiest squid ever."

"I heard my name?" Celine popped her head out of Evan and Philip's room from where she was hanging out, showing them how to clean an octobrush's mechanisms.

Ora looked up, "It was nothing, Celine. We were just talking about how hard Jace has been working."

Celine nodded assuredly, then disappeared back into Evan and Philip's room.

"She might be the luckiest squid every, but I think that a lucky squid has nothing on you, Ora." Rose said before walking off to get something from the fridge.

Ora stood there for a moment, thinking on what Rose had just said. Rose couldn't have been in a relationship before, the army didn't allow that. What she said had the passive innocence that only a kid's truth could contain.

"Celine?" Ora called out down the rooms. Celine stuck her head out, "Yeah?"

"Are you doing anything right now?"

"Nah, just finishing up here."

"Can I talk to you real quick then?"

"Yeah," Celine said, "Sure."

She said a couple of things about practicing cleaning the octobrush more tomorrow to Evan and Philip, then walked outside, following Ora. Ora and Celine walked in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the good day. It was starting to become fall, and the leaves were turning yellow and red and falling to the ground, spreading fresh fragrance of the coming winter. They stayed in silence all until Ora cleared her throat.

"Can I talk to you about Jace?"

Celine looked at her friend, best friend by now. "Anything, Ora."

Ora sighed, then steeled her now churning stomach, "I think that I've fallen in love with him."

Celine opened her mouth to speak, but Ora interrupted her and kept talking.

"I know that you two have been friends for a much longer time, and I know that Jace likes you, but I needed to say it. I'm falling in love with Jace, Celine, I'm sorry."

Celine paused and thought for a long moment. With eery passing second the nausea that Ora felt in her stomach and heart seeped onwards through her body, giving her shakes. It felt like ages until Celine finally spoke again.

"Ora?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I understand what you're feeling. You're in love with Jace and you think that he and I are in love with each other. Along those lines you've drawn the conclusion that he'll choose me over you if you wanted to be with him."

With each somber truth, the nausea grew further, tightening powerful knots in Ora's stomach.

"But,"

Ora perked up as Celine continued.

"I'm not in love with Jace, Ora. He's my friend, he's a damn good friend, and God knows that in the past he's tried to ask me out… multiple times. But I just can't do it. I've said no to him every single time he's asked me out. He's been like a brother I never had to me for so long, that it's impossible for me to be in love with him. I love him, but I'm not in love with him. Sure, I may tease him, and it sure looks like I'm in love with him when I do that, but I don't mean anything by it at all. The competition that you and I had when we were infiltrating the Octarian camps was only a friendly competition to me, I just used it to tease Jace. Ora, you've become my best friend in these last months, I know that you and Jace would be good together. You'd be good for him."

Celine had no clue how much relief Ora felt at those words. All the tensions that had built up in her, the sickening tightening of her gut, released in near-ecstasy. Her heart slowed, sped up, then slowed again as she smiled warmly to Celine.

"Do you really mean that?" She asked, wanting to hear the confirmation.

"Yes, I mean it." Celine said, then hugged Ora. "And I'll help you make sure that he knows too. But right now is not the time to do this."

The eyes Celine could see behind ora's sunglasses filled with confusion, so she elaborated.

"We can't afford distractions right now, not with a war almost on us. Especially Jace, he's been stuck at the Academy, trying desperately to figure all this out. He's devoting all his time to keep us alive, now isn't the time to distract him from his job."

Ora nodded solemnly, "Yeah. But he can't be cooped up in that Academy forever. He'll go insane."

"Tell you what," Celine put her arm around Ora, "Let's go visit him. I bet you're right, he could use a break and some freedom. Maybe we can go to a club or some restaura-"

The ground shook underneath them as a muffled 'boom' settled. Ora looked to Celine, "What the hell was that?"

Celine's eyes were filled with action, her fists clenched. "That came from below us."

A gasp came from Ora as she understood.

"The Academy."

Celine nodded. "Come on!" She yelled, running off in the direction of the sewer's entrance.

Celine blocked people's views as Ora opened the manhole cover and they both slid down, landing lightly on the platforms covering the ink-waste.

The two friends sprinted all the way down to the Academy to see a massive hole blasted in its side, smoke rising in light curls from where the wall had been blown up. Ora could barely make out a single squid looking around in the rubble.

The explosion had come from the advanced movement classrooms, as Celine and Ora found when they ran for the damaged area.

In the rubble, Agent 3 was desperately looking around. Frantically tossing rocks that should've weighed a ton like they were nothing. He only gave Ora and Celine a slight glance when they walked in, opting to yell at them before they could say anything.

"GET OVER HERE AND HELP ME LOOK!" The desperation was evident in his voice. "JACE AND MARIE ARE IN HERE!"

Ora felt her blood-ink freeze. Her heart missed a beat, then started pumping harder than ever. Adrenaline filled her as she pounced on the rubble, tearing at boulders twice her size.

The rocks all cut into her hands, spreading her blood on the edges. As one rock became too heavy to lift, Celine was at her side, lifting it with her.

Minutes passed quickly, melding into hours, night fell farther. Ora didn't notice it, but Callie had apparently joined in the search with them.

After so long, Ora finally heard a moan to her left.

"Over here!" She called, ripping herself at the rubble in front of her. "Somebody's over here!"

Celine was the first to join her efforts, but 3 and Callie were soon there with all four of them tearing at the stones. They quickly uncovered Jace's back. His shirt was in shreds from shrapnel and sharp rubble.

"Jace!" Ora cried out, she swept the rest of the rubble off of his mangled body. Jace moaned slightly as the weight was removed.

"Are you okay, Jace?"

Another moan.

Ora and Celine pulled on his body and dragged him out of the hole in the rubble to discover Marie underneath him, conscious.

"Marie!" 3 yelled out, and scrambled to embrace her, "Marie, are you okay?"

Marie blinked a few times, regaining composure as best she could. "Is Jace okay?"

3 didn't answer, instead somberly shrugging as he looked to Jace's unmoving body.

"3," Marie groaned, she must've taken some hits even though Jace was over her, "He saved my life. I have no clue how, but he jumped in front of the explosion and protected me. Don't let him die. Don't let him die, 3."

Agent 3 nodded, he knew what to do. "I understand, Marie. He's earned it."

3 walked over to Jace and picked him up. "Ink transfer." He told Callie, she nodded grimy and sprinted off to get something. 3 looked to Ora and Celine, "Get Marie to the hospital room."

"Yes sir."

Ora and Celine sprinted over to Marie and helped her to her feet. They stumbled their way to the hospital room in the back of the offices.

"So he saved your life?" Celine asked Marie, "Jace saved your life?"

Marie nodded weakly, "Jumped in the way of the explosion and I. We were taking a look at those… things we brought back from the infiltration mission. It blew up. He jumped in the way, took the shrapnel for me."

And Marie passed out.

Jace's ink-stained shirt was lying outside of the hospital room, ripped off of his body. It lay, soaked in his own ink-blood.

The sight chilled the two friends.

When they entered the hospital room, they lay Marie down on a bed and sprinted to Jace's side. There were a ton of instruments nearby with Callie operating a majority of them and 3 examining a couple of vials of ink-blood.

"Damn it." 3 spit out, "He's O-type Violet. Just freaking perfect for us."

Inkling blood was classified by the antigens on the cells, and then their color. Wrong color, or antigen compatibility, and the recipient would be burned alive from their veins outwards.

Just their complete luck that O-type Violet was the universal donor, but can only receive ink-blood from other O-type Violets.

"What?" Callie exclaimed from her instruments. Ora saw some screens displaying vitals and whatnot, it must've been what was keeping Jace alive while he bled out.

"Do any of you have O-type Violet?" 3 asked Celine and Ora desperately. "We used our last O-type Violet dealing with some injuries the other day, a squid almost lost his leg. We need some blood now!"

Ora raised her hand tentatively.

"But I'm an Octoling." She said. 3 sighed, "It's all we can do for him. Either we give him a fighting chance with your blood, or Jace bleeds out in front of our eyes and there's nothing we can do to stop this."

Ora nodded.

Agent 3 held out a syringe and stuck it into her arm.

A/N: so yeah, remember when I said that I would provide regular content? Well life gave me a little knee to the balls about that. I'm super busy, but don't think I've forgotten about this. I spend a lot of time every day, thinking about where I could take this story, and I love writing these stories for you guys. I want to write these. So expect some chapters coming your way. I'll try my hardest to update often, but I'm super busy. I'm a junior in high school, I play hockey and coach hockey, I am a leading contributor to the Indie Game development company: GeekTank while we are currently making our first game, not to mention I've been assigned to write a real, legit, book. It's been busy. But I love everyone who's read this, and I want to give you a story worth the wait.


	28. Giving

Ora's ink-blood flowed from her body and she watched it go into Jace's. There was a throbbing where the syringe had entered her arm, right in her vein. With every second passing, Jace shook a little more, whether from blood or pain was anybody's guess. Ora was barely aware of a slight hissing noise that was filling the air, like oil bubbling and boiling, and Jace was sweaty and hot. His skin was slowly turning pinker. Ora reached her hand over to Jace's face and touched his forehead, it was burning hot.

"Come on, come on." 3 kept whispering, monitoring the transfer of the ink-blood. Callie kept on watching Jace's vitals, giving 3 info when he needed it to keep the ink transfer going.

"Is his body accepting Ora's ink?" Celine asked cautiously from the head of Jace's bed.

"No clue," 3 told her, "This is kind of a first for everybody in the history of squids. There's never been a cross-species blood transfer between Inklings and Octarians, I'm just kind of winging this."

Those words did the exact opposite of comfort Ora and Celine. Ora felt her blood pressure raise when she heard 3's words, and ink-blood spurted out a little bit from the syringe as a wave of new blood washed into it.

It didn't feel like too long before 3 took the needle out of Ora, tossed in a red container on the side wall, and wrapped Ora's arm. "You need to go get some food, you're weakened, Ora. We've got pastries in the cafeteria, you should have some of those."

Ora opened her mouth to protest, but 3 didn't let her talk. "I'm going to patch up Jace on the assumption that the ink-blood was accepted. It's the only thing we can do right now. Maybe Jace will make it through this, maybe he'll pass, if anything happens, I'll make sure to send Callie to get you. You just gave away a ton of blood, you've helped out enough, there's nothing else you can do but get in the way as you rest. Celine, please help Ora to the cafeteria."

Ora was about to argue, stay, and say that she was fine, but as she stood up to do so, her legs suddenly felt like liquid and Celine barely grabbed her in time before Ora collapsed.

"I think I'll go sit down in the cafeteria." She mumbled.

Ora and Celine walked slowly out of the room. Celine supported Ora all the way to the cafeteria, and sure enough there were pastries lying on a platter on the tables. Donuts… so many donuts. It was truly majestic. Celine grabbed two plates and a bunch of donuts while Ora sat gingerly down at a table.

Ora looked terribly fragile, her eyelids fluttered lightly as she tried to relax with her eyes shut.

"You gave a lot of blood." Celine said, sitting next to Ora. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I feel like somebody hit my arm with a truck and my head with an eighteen wheeler." She told Celine, reaching over to grab a donut and stick it in her mouth. "Ohh, that's some good stuff… maple glaze."

She finished it off and grabbed a second donut (chocolate with sprinkles) by the time Celine was halfway done with her first.

"That was super stressful." Ora said, then rescinded that statement, "still is. I can feel my heart beating out a dubstep."

Celine nodded, agreeing with her friend, "I'm legitimately afraid right now. Didn't you see how Jace was? He was ripped to shreds. It was like somebody had tried to play connect the dots on his chest with a scalpel. Imagine how much shrapnel is inside of him right now… he was so torn up, I actually don't know if he'll make it."

Ora frowned, "He better, damn it, I sure as hell am not losing him after you promised to help me convince the idiot that he should ask me out."

This elicited a laugh from Celine, "You sound just like me… that's something I would say."

"You're so violent." Ora chided, "But only to Jace, I've noticed."

The donut Celine was eating disappeared, "Well… he needs it. He forgets stuff quickly, and only because I'm tough on him… and a little mean, does he remember. I think I do it for his best, but also 'cause it's funny. Have you seen his face whenever I shoot him in the back of the head when he forgets something. Comedy gold."

"Comedy platinum," Ora countered, "He gets this doofball face that just screams 'Did I forget something Celine?' we should film him and stick the video on Callie and Marie's newscast. Nobody would forget that in a second."

A short silence developed between them… driving out the minutes. During this time, the donut pile slowly wore down as Ora and Celine devoured the sugary pastries.

"Have you noticed something recently?" Ora asked Celine, "Jace has been trying to avoid the public as much as possible. He hasn't even gone to the turf war battles."

"Well, there was that time where we were hanging out with Callie and Marie and Jace was seen by the paparazzi. Since that happened, I think that he's been avoiding the spotlight. I don't think he wants to get publicity."

Ora nodded, "That sounds right. He doesn't like the thought of being popular or famous, just knowing that he was on t.v. is enough to get his face red, even when it's in the most minimal of ways. It's going to be something he can't avoid, he's going to have to face it someday. Whenever I've been outside at all, I've heard somebody talk about who Callie and Marie were hanging out with. If Jace shows his face outside of the Academy, people will start talking even more."

They kept on the subject of popularity and association until the doors opened and Callie walked in. She walked straight into the cafeteria and saw the empty platter that used to be filled with donuts, and then the two friends who were relaxing in their seats. She walked over and touched ora and Celine's shoulders.

"Hey," she said, "3 is done patching up Jace, do you want to come with me to see him?"

Ora stood up quickly, stumbled, and then steadied herself against the table.

"yeah, let's go."

Celine stood up right after Ora and put a helping arm under her armpit. They walked their way slowly back to the health office. Outside of the office was 3, cleaning up the messy shirt remains Jace had torn off of himself before 3 could work on patching him up.

"How is he?" Celine asked 3.

"Well, he's not dead yet at least." Was all 3 could say. Ora and Celine looked at each other, then walked inside.

Jace was lying on a bed, covers pulled up to his bare stomach. The bed underneath him was soaked with his sweat. Ora reached out a hand and touched his arm, "Jace?" she whispered. His eyes fluttered open weakly. "Ora?" He sounded like he'd been gargling sandpaper for three weeks, "Where am I? And where in the world is my shirt?"

"You're-in-the-health-office-an-explosion-went-off-and-you-were-right-in-the-middle-of-it-and-I've-been-worried-sick-about-you-and-oh-my-God-I-am-so-glad-you're-okay." Ora spewed this out all very fast. Celine wondered if Ora had gotten too much sugar from the donuts.

"Slow down please? I couldn't understand you one bit." Jace said. Ora took a deep breath and tried again.

"You're in the health offices. Earlier, you were apparently doing experiments on those packages we picked up in the infiltration mission and they blew up. Marie said that you jumped in front of the explosion, saved her life in the process. You were so close to dying, you were blown to bits. So much shrapnel. I was so worried about you-" Ora couldn't say any more after that, tears started streaming down her face and she buried it in Jace's shoulder.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Jace." She finally said.

Jace felt a little burning sensation on his shoulder, and looked at it to see Ora's tears… ink-tears, on him. Octoling ink. But it wasn't burning, so much as pleasantly luke-warm, and the ink wasn't eating into him. It in fact, tickled.

"Ora, why is your ink not hurting me?" Jace asked, touching the tears curiously. The ink drops went onto his hand and the tickling feeling followed them, along with the slight heat. Ora followed the drops as they traveled down his arm, her eyes displaying her own curiosity.

"It could be because of the fact that you've got Ora's blood in your own veins right now," Celine told Jace, going in for a hug. "I was so worried about you, Jace. I'm so glad you are okay. But, Ora gave blood to save you, and that's what's in your veins right now. Maybe that's why her ink isn't hurting you."

"That's so weird," Jace said to Celine, "Are you serious when you say that she gave blood? Why am I not dead?"

Celine shrugged. "Like I have any clue on the fluids of the body. I never studied that stuff in school… I'm no scientist."

From the door, Callie smiled, "Well, we can study this later. All we know for sure, is that after this ink-blood transplant, Jace now has a resistance to Octarian inks. Why don't we use this to our advantage?"

"Not so," Ora said, "We shouldn't risk Jace that much, he just almost died. And remember, the Octarians have a water based armory now. If he's got a resistance to Octarian ink, then it's safe to assume that water's going to tear him apart twice as fast. Maybe we should get him a new suit, one with all resistance to water and no resistance to ink?"

Celine seemed to agree with that, but Jace wasn't a big fan of the idea. "I like my suit and its capabilities. It's really helpful. And we don't know anything for sure, doing anything right now would be too premature to be really useful to us. We'd just be putting me at risk. I'm much safer in my current suit with my current skills."

"It's something to keep in mind, though." Callie said, "You never know when that knowledge will come in handy. Do you want to do some tests?"

"Right now?" Jace said, gesturing to his bare chest, "I've kind of just woken up, I don't feel good at all. I mostly feel really hungry, but I can't breathe in all the way, my legs feel asleep, I can feel a massive soreness in my chest, and I've got a headache like no other."

"Right," Callie told him, "Maybe later."

"Right now you need to get some rest." Came another voice from the doorway, 3 with a torn up shirt. He held it out and spread it. The shirt looked like somebody had turned it into a very flimsy cheese grater. There were holes nearly everywhere. "I counted at least forty different entry points for shrapnel, and some separated while inside your body. You were lucky to survive the blast. Take a look to your right at the jar."

There was a peanut jar to Jace's right filled to the brim with metal, stone, and other stuff.

"That was all inside of your body."

Jace felt his blood go cold. "All that?" He said weakly, "Was in my body?"

"All of it was lodged in your chest. Your ribs blocked a ton of it, but there was plenty to patch up. I now know you better inside and out than you know yourself. Did you know that your gallbladder is actually a couple of centimeters larger than the normal? Go figure."

Jace felt his blood go even colder, he felt violated. "You poked around inside of my body?"

"To save your life."

"That's still pretty weird man, you're creeping me out. And how do you know what my gallbladder looks like? Isn't that hidden behind my liver."

"You had a small piece of metal lodged below your liver. I was just curious."

"You're creeping me out man."

 **A/N:** So let's see if I can keep a bi-weekly schedule. Here's hoping life doesn't get in the way. So, I was wondering about something, how many of you are artists? I've been looking for somebody to do some art for this story, I can't go around with that lame cover forever. So, I wanted to do some sort of a contest with everybody who's read this story. The contest is this, you guys make some art, do whatever you want as art for this story, and the best drawing will become the cover to my book. Any and all art that I get from you guys will also be an Easter egg in the video game I'm creating, I'll have a whole room dedicated to this art. The game itself is just a fangame (I'm making a different game with a company called Geektank, that one's legit, I'm just working on the fangame on my own time) to the youtuber Markiplier. He's more than willing to play the game, so there's a possibility of your art being seen by a couple million people (Which I think is pretty awesome). PM me if you have any art to turn in, I'll be waiting. I know a bunch of you out there are really good artists, and I can't wait to see what you have in store. (Also, whoever sends me a picture, I'll do a favor for them, whatever they want. Whether it's a face reveal from myself, basing a character on you, whatever you'd like. And it's for anybody who sends in some art.) Whether it's a picture of a ship of your favorite characters, or of the academy, or of a fight, I would more than love to see it. Thank you so much for participating and reading what I have so far in the story, you don't understand how much I appreciate this. And as always, Have Yourselves a Damn Good Day, Dlahm out!


	29. A weakened night

The world got a little brighter as Jace opened his eyes from resting on the hospital room's bed. He stretched his arms out, and felt something warm next to him. Jace turned his head to the right to look at the thing, and saw Ora on his bed… next to him. Jace stopped himself just a second before crying out, and slowly moved his arm away from where it was near her.

As his hand moved away, Ora moved in her sleep and Jace froze, careful not to wake her up. He tried sliding his body a few feet to the left, away from Ora, but found that he was almost off the bed already, they were sharing it exactly half and half to where they both had just enough bed.

 _Did I agree to her sleeping in my bed last night? Or did she sneak in or something? I don't remember much because of how tired I was, maybe I did agree to this… I could've been so tired I was intoxicated._ Jace tried to think through this situation. _I couldn't have agreed to this, I know that I wouldn't do that, so she must have snuck in while I was sleeping._

Jace slid out from underneath the covers and fell to the ground right away, his legs failing him right away and he thudded on the tile. He was naked save for his underwear, another point to the awkward-count.

"Ah," he moaned softly, trying very hard not to wake up Ora. He put a hand on the mattress and lifted himself up as slowly as he possibly could. His legs were unsteady and his head spun as he stood up. "This is… not good." Jace had to catch his breath halfway through the sentence.

He grabbed a rolling chair and sat down in it, then wheeled it over to the window. He took a peek outside the curtains and saw the sun not even up yet, the moon was overhead to cast its own light across everything. Jace looked at his legs while he sat, wondering why they were so unstable.

 _I'm probably just still weak from the explosion, it'll take a while to get back to full strength._ His stomach growled. _Speaking of strength, a little food won't hurt my recovery process._

Jace got a bathrobe and put it on, then rolled the chair over to the door and pushed it open. He wheeled the chair down the hall, pushing off of walls to get himself forwards, and tried to get into the kitchen. There was a little metal bump in the way… needless to say, the crash was spectacular, and the yell was high pitched and hilarious.

"Wha-? Jace?" Ora walked out of the hospital room in a minute, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "Jace? What's going on?"

She looked at Jace, who was still on the ground rubbing his scrapped knees and bruised wrists. "When did you wake up?"

Jace stared up at her, "Just a few minutes ago. I wanted to get a snack from the kitchen… but there was this little metal bump that kind of tripped my chair up." He watched as Ora put a thumb and fore finger to the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"You are such a dork, Jace."

That got a little chuckle from Jace. "But seriously," he said, "Can I have some help, I'm not strong enough to stand."

Ora helped him to his feet and got Jace back in the chair, she pushed him into the cafeteria and he rolled over to a table while she grabbed whatever she could from the kitchen. There were a few tacos left from the last lunch that they had eaten at the academy, and Ora heated them up and got a plate for the two of them.

"Say, Ora," Jace started once they were both seated and eating, "What were you doing in my bed? I don't remember you going to bed next to me when I fell asleep, why were you there?"

Ora's cheeks grew slightly redder, she started playing with her hair (accidentally getting a little bit of beans in it while she did so). "Well, you see… um." She was totally embarrassed. "Well… after everybody went home, I didn't want you to stay here all by yourself, so I decided to stay here until you woke up. Partway through the night, I started getting cold, so I crawled into your bed. I only stayed under the comforter, not under the sheets, I didn't want it to be awkward. It was warm, and I accidentally fell asleep. Sorry."

The taco disappeared down Jace's gullet. He wiped his mouth, "Why are you sorry?"

"I did something wrong?" She asked.

Jace shrugged, "I don't care either way what happened, so long as nothing bad happened. I was worried that we…" He grew silent.

"We?" Ora inquired politely.

"Nothing, never mind. I'm glad that you wanted to stay here with me." _Bullet dodged… gotta be more careful around her, I'll say something I regret._

The two ate until they had filled their nearly insatiable hungers and went back to the beds. Jace noticed how many beds were empty… all but his, she could've chosen any bed and it wouldn't have been awkward. Jace crawled back into his bed carefully, so as not to hurt himself, and Ora sat next to him on top of the comforter.

"You should've seen how stressed out 3 was."

Jace looked up at Ora, "What?"

"When you and Marie were hurt. He was extremely stressed out; he was absolutely frantic in trying to make sure that you two were okay."

"Heh, I didn't think the guy had feelings." It was nice to joke about 3, he was such a character to all the students in the academy. He was always so business-like, but seemed to joke around in that manner so that the students never understood whether he was joking or not. "He just never wants to show them, I guess."

Ora lay down next to Jace and crawled underneath the comforter, Jace was underneath the covers… he didn't know what to feel about that. He still had the bathrobe on… but still, it was just plain intimate.

"When he realized that you had saved Marie's life, I think he feels indebted to you now, Jace. He tried tirelessly to save your life."

"Please, he just doesn't want the guy who he can tease to die. That's all."

Ora giggled, "It's not just that. You're a great guy, a great friend to him. He doesn't have many people to talk to, but you're one of the few that can actually get a few words out of him other than Callie, Marie, and the Cap'n. He teases you, yeah, but you get teased in a different way than everybody else in the classes. He sort of teases you to try and goad you on, like he wants you to be better than everybody. Everybody else is just for laughs, but there's something more there."

"I…" Jace started, "I never saw it that way before. Huh, go figure."

"You're a great friend to him, and you're a great friend to Celine, and you're a great friend to Callie, and Marie, and…me." Ora closed her eyes, "Thanks for being you, Jace."

Jace just stared at her for minutes on end, until Ora's breathing softened and he realized that she had gone to sleep.

 _She calls me the dork… but she's the weird one._


	30. End of Recovery

The recovery weeks were painfully slow, a torturous time of not moving. At least, in this time, Jace was able to get all of the annoying flaws in his safe house plan worked out and start construction, using other squids, of the safe houses. There were to be four different safe houses, three of which would be under the control of Evan, Philip, and Crista. The fourth house would be Jace's house, and act as the last stop before the Octolings could join the Academy's defenses. The Cap'n gave Jace money to buy more beds and food; pretty soon Jace's two bed rooms could hold up to thirty Octolings, not including Ora, Delfinia, and Rose (Philip, Crista, and Evan would live at the safe houses).

Of course there were fall back measures in place. Sheldon gave a crew of Academy Inklings digging tools and they made a series of catacombs under each safe house that could be used as a quick escape in case the operations didn't go according to plan. Only the safe house operators would know about these catacombs, and the catacombs were designed to be a maze to those who didn't know the way out, so they'd be pretty safe.

Evan, Philip, And Crista came to see Jace in the Academy as he recovered before they left for the safe houses that way they could iron out every little detail and make sure the operation was a success.

Evan had a list of Octolings that Delfinia and Rose had made a few days ago in order to get started with the Octolings that would be willing to run away. The two girls made sure that they only included Octolings who were 100% sure of running away from the military. The first Octoling any refugee would meet would be Evan in the first safe house. Evan's job was to make sure that the Octolings in his house were disarmed before they moved to the next safe house.

The next would be Philip, who'd try to get as much info as possible from the Octolings before moving them on to Crista's safe house.

Crista's house would be the closest to the surface, and the one the Octolings would stay the longest at. This would be the most important stop, as it was completely up to Crista on whether the Octolings were to be trusted. Any Octolings that couldn't be trusted would stay at that house and not move on until they proved themselves.

At Jace's house, they'd be given the choice to fight with the Academy, or to take a step back and not join in the fighting. Any Octolings that chose to fight would be moved to the Academy for room and board, any choosing to not would stay at Jace's house until other arrangements could be made for their safety.

There were definitely a ton of What-Ifs in this plan, and many things could go wrong… but they were all prepared for this.

Jace didn't know if they'd continue this housing system after the war… that wouldn't be his choice, but Cuttlefish approved of the plan, and Evan, Crista, and Philip were ready. In fact, as they made their way down to the safe houses, they all seemed to look very confident… Jace could only hope that this went well.

"Jace, come in, Jace." Evan's voice came out of a radio that Jace had next to his bed in the hospital. Jace picked up the transmitter, "I hear you Evan, how's the house looking?"

There were a couple of seconds before Evan responded, "I like the kitchen that they have. I didn't expect much, but it'll prove useful to… influence our Octoling friends."

"Don't tell me you're going to bribe them with dessert, Evan." Jace told him, smiling even though he knew Evan couldn't see it.

"Maybe."

"Well, odds are that'll work. Those lessons you've been taking with the chef have paid off, once this is all over you should get a job at a restaurant. But for the meantime, focus on the task at hand, is there anything wrong with the house as of right now?" Jace had no knowledge of how the houses were actually set up, all he got was word from the Academy squids who made them.

"The first shipment of food was already here, the rooms are all set up as per what we said, and I've got a secret stash of weapons in my very own office. I think that this house is set up and ready for operations. I'll scout out the area around me tonight and see what I can see, the next night I'll probably try to get a visual of the first two Octolings on this list. Everything looks good, Jace. I'll check in with you if anything comes up."

"Good job, Evan, stay safe."

"Will do."

The other two Octolings both checked in using the same radio channel just a few minutes after each other. They'd be able to communicate using the radios if they needed to, which would be very helpful when they had Octolings moving from one house to another.

"That should do it." Jace whispered to himself.

It'd been over three weeks of recovery, and Jace was feeling restless. He swung himself out of bed and got on some clothes. He went outside and got some fresh air under the night sky, tomorrow he'd be released from recovery and free to go home, his body felt as good as new. Jace wondered if Ora was lying in her bed right now, or if she was doing something with Delfinia and Rose, or if Celine was over… it would be great to be back in the swing of things tomorrow.

* * *

Jace fit the key into his lock and opened his door, three different girls ran at him at once and hugged him. Ora, Delfinia, and Rose.

"Jace, holy crap this house has been empty without you in it." Ora told him. "Welcome home."

"It's not like you missed me or anything, right?" Jace asked, "You visited me every single day in the Academy… and sometimes nights." Ora grinned shyly at that, but Jace smiled warmly at his three friends. "Looks like you did, though."

"Of course we did. You're like our big brother." Delfinia said.

"Also, we missed your cooking."

"Rose! That's not true…" Delfinia looked mortified by what Rose said, then shrugged and accepted it, "Okay, maybe a little bit."

Jace walked over to the pantry and checked on what ingredients he had. His eyes widened, he had enough to make his mac n' cheese again. "Well, why don't I make you all something to eat then?"

They squeezed him even tighter.

* * *

Delfinia let out a tiny satisfied burp and sighed in content. "Ahhhhh, that was amazing as always." She stood up and took everybody's plates to go scrub them off. The mac n' cheese was obviously everybody's favorite by now, Jace wondered how much food he'd have to make once he had a full house of refugees. It'll probably turn into full on catering at that point, he'd be spending hundreds of points every night, thanks to Cuttlefish, he'd have enough to do that.

"So, has Cuttlefish done anything new for training yet?" Jace asked everybody. Ora shook her head, "Nope, it's mostly just been team fight training and whatever we'd worked on before you were injured."

"Well, I've got a couple ideas about that I need to tell Cuttlefish tomorrow. Being in there gave me a lot of time to think, and I didn't want to ask for Cuttlefish to see me, he probably was too busy. I've got a couple ideas for training drills."

"What were they?" Delfinia asked.

It was clear that Jace put a lot of thought into the ideas, he'd had plenty of time to do so, and it took almost all night to explain every single drill. Jace's memory failed him on quite a few drills, though, so he improvised whenever he forgot… most times that ended up in a drill that could end up being lethal.

"You should try writing down your ideas instead of just trying to remember them, Jace." Ora told him as he went to his room to finally sleep in his own bed again. "Ah, it's no matter, I'll see you tomorrow, Jace."

 **A/N:** Hello there Squidos, Dlahm17 here, back from a long break. Just wanted to say that I'm back and we're reaching the final stretch of this book. Since we're going to be ending in the next 10 or so chapters (maybe more) I'm going to forego doing my normal Thank Yous to everybody who followed favorited and commented, and instead going to do a big celebration at the end of the book. I've been very busy lately, but summer is here and now I can sit back and write more on this. I've also been working on a couple other big projects, one of which I'll give you a sneak peek to at the end of Splaticide, it's an original book featuring many of the characters I've used in Splaticide. To tell the truth, Splaticide is just one big testing ground for ideas I have, and this book I've been working on is the product of those tests. I hope to have it published in less than a year, and I'm making good ground on it. I also wanted to say that following and favoriting Splaticide is encouraged, as it does keep me motivated, and please comment if you feel the need to. Thank you all, and have yourselves a damn good day, Dlahm out!


	31. 2 Days

The birds were chirping happily when Jace woke up, the sun wasn't out yet, but they still chirped like they had no cares in the world. Most Inklings wouldn't wake up until the sun was at least most of the way up in the sky, but Academy Inklings were made of different stuff. From his bed, Jace could smell something good coming from downstairs, but he couldn't put his finger on what the smell was exactly. He wandered downstairs to find Ora and Delfinia already awake and making breakfast.

"Morning, Jace," Ora said, "Delfinia and I were going to make you breakfast in bed, but you're already up."

Jace smelled the air again and picked up the succulent smell of bacon and eggs. On the pan, thick slabs of bacon were cooking next to scrambled eggs that already had cheese melting all over them. Jace felt his mouth start to water.

"That smells really good, but you didn't have to do this."

Delfinia flipped some bacons slabs with Jace's blue spatula, "Well, yes we did. For one thing, you've cooked for us for the longest time, so it's about time we paid you back for that. Secondly, Evan taught us how to make this new bacon jam that's supposed to bring out the flavors the bacon has. We wanted to try it out for you."

Everybody at Jace's house had to admit that Evan's cooking was phenomenal, the lessons that he was taking were paying off. _Eventually,_ Jace thought, _he should get a job at a restaurant. Of course, once all this with the Octolings are over. He'd be able to be autonomous up here without me if he does, probably be able to start a new life. There's so much he'd be able to do here, so long as he doesn't get killed by Inklings… but maybe Callie and Marie can smooth things over with the public so that they won't shoot on sight._

"Well then, thanks," Jace said, relaxing while somebody else made breakfast, "I can't wait to try it."

Ten mouthwatering minutes later, the meal was ready. Jace got himself a plate and served up the eggs and bacon. The two girls watched in anticipation as he bit in.

"Dang! That's amazing!"

Delfinia and Ora broke into cheers and high-fived each other, then grabbed themselves plates and served up. Jace dug his fork back in for a second bite, then a third, polishing off the bacon and eggs with a reckless abandon.

"Hey," Jace said after seconds, "Where's Rose?"

Ora swallowed, "Still in the room, she's pouting because Crista left for her mission. Do you want to take her some food?"

In just a few minutes Jace was upstairs with a tray, knocking on the girls' bedroom door. "Crista, I've got some breakfast right here, you want some?"

The door opened slowly, "Sure, Jace." The little Octoling said, "Thanks." Jace held the door open and handed her the tray, "What's wrong, Rose?"

At his words Rose started sniffling a little bit, she walked away and sat down. Jace walked through the door and sat down on her bed next to her, putting a brotherly arm over her, "Is everything okay?"

"Crista left… she and I were really *sniff* close. I don't really like talking to the others as much, and they've got other people to talk to besides me. Crista and I could talk without worrying about the others, she was a lot like me in that matter. But now she left, why couldn't you have had somebody else go?"

Jace chose his words carefully, he felt his heart being pulled by the little girl and he didn't want to hurt her. "Well, she was very important to my plan. I needed Octolings that I could trust to handle the mission. If we had Inklings, then it would be much harder to earn the Octoling's trust before they met me in person. And Crista is very trustworthy, and reliable, so I needed to have her in this."

It didn't look like he had Rose convinced, so he continued, "So, the problem you're having is that there's nobody to talk to?"

She nodded.

"Well, why haven't you talked to me about it?"

Rose looked up at Jace, she was like a little sister to him. "I'm not one to talk in front people."

"I know that. But you don't have to talk around others. You can ask me things on our own, it's not like I'll say that we have to have Ora and Delfinia around us all the time. Just tell me when you want to talk, I'm more than happy to talk to you about whatever you want. Just like we're doing right now."

"Jace?" Rose looked up at him, he nodded. "Yeah?"

"Thank you." And she hugged his neck, "You're like the big brother I was never allowed to have."

 _Never allowed to have? You learn something new about your enemies every single day, don't you?_

"Of course, Rose. I'm happy that I could help, now dig in to your breakfast. Delfinia and Ora made this amazing new jam to put on the bacon and eggs, and it tastes scrumptious. I'll see you back downstairs in a bit, we still have to go to the Academy today."

* * *

The Academy was much louder than it had been in a long time, the tensions were mounting as the imminent attack loomed closer, so most of the Inklings had taken it to themselves to be as rowdy as possible. Jace left Ora, Delfinia, and Rose at the first class, saying that he needed to talk to Cuttlefish about the drills he'd thought of, and went into the offices to meet with the Cap'n.

He knocked on the door, and in moments it opened up.

"Eh?" The Cap'n said, "Oh, come on in, Jace. That's a good fella."

He looked like he'd aged five years in the last two months, the impending war was doing its toll on him. Wrinkles on the veterans face were more pronounced, deeper, his beard hair had started falling out a little bit here and there, and his arms were mostly bone.

"What did ya want ta talk about, bucko?"

Jace walked over to the wall that the map was on and looked at Inkopolis. "Well, now that we know that those objects explode, what do you think the Octoling plan is?"

The Cap'n looked at the map, "Well, the Octolings won't be as keen on just blowing up random buildings, so I have an idea on where they may strike. This is, of course, only if they make it past the Academy. But, what I was thinking, was that they may strike at one of a couple locations. The first location would be the town hall. Blowing up the town hall would lead to the deaths of hundreds and would demoralize the fighters when they know that the center of the town was destroyed. Another spot would be the splat arenas, once again, hundreds would be killed and the fighters would be demoralized. But the most likely spot, judging by what we know of the enemies, is the Spitfire Dam."

The Cap'n pointed to the spot on the map that read out "Spitfire Dam".

The Dam was a very large structure, holding back a ton of water that slowly was fed into the valley. If it was let out all at once, the town would be flooded, as there wasn't enough room to let all the water flood the Octo Valley at once. Jace could see how that would work, destroy the town and all the Inklings in it, then let the water feed into the valley and take over the town when there were no more fighters left.

"The Dam itself was the site of one of the battles between my old Spitfire Splatoon squad, and the Octarians in the first war, they named it after us. By destroying the dam, they'd demolish the whole town. It sounds exactly like what the hellbent Octoling commander would do. It's crazy, would kill a lot of people, and would leave conquering as the easy part."

If the dam busted, it would kill everybody.

"Then we stop them at the Academy then." Jace told the Cap'n, "We have the squids, and the skills, to win here. We win here, they won't get the chance"

Cuttlefish nodded, "Indeed. We need to win it here. Thank god that we've had these months to prepare."

Something about the Cap'n's voice put Jace off, something about how he used the months in the past tense. "Cap'n, what do you mean 'had'?"

"Ivy's squad was on sentry duty last night, and they spotted a large number of Octolings and Octarians moving up the Valley towards us. They have engines of war with them, ink launchers which probably shoot water, and what looks like catapults to fire the explosives at us. We've got two days before they reach us."

Jace froze, "Two days? But we just sent out Evan, Crista, and Philip! They didn't have any time to get their mission underway!"

"I know, Bucko. You may as well tell them to stay hidden for now, and pray that we live to see them again. We won't have any enemy numbers weakened for this fight, but we damn well better weaken them ourselves. I'm going to go tell the Academy this at the end of the day. Nobody will be able to leave here, we're going to stay here until the threat is over, that way we can defend at full force no matter when."

It seemed like the fight was too soon, like it came without much warning. Jace nodded, "Yes sir. I'll work hard today then." And saluted the Cap'n like the Cap'n always did to those coming home from a mission.

He was in a daze throughout the lessons, but he worked hard nonetheless. At the end of the day, Cap'n Cuttlefish walked up in front of the whole Academy and gave them the news, they'd be fighting for their lives in two days. The Academy gasped as a whole, and it was like everybody's hearts skipped the exact same beat.

Jace spread his sleeping bag out on the floor of the advanced movement and parkour classroom. There were squids sleeping everywhere, some even on top of the pillars and platforms. The rooms were packed and Callie and Marie had already called in sick for the next two days… the tensions were mounting even further. Two days were left until the fight.

A/N: Well then... yeah, two days for Jace and His friends. I want to know your thoughts on what you think will happen, I already have it all planned out, I just want to hear your thoughts. Also, to Mr/Mrs Squidling '02, you put down a review on the last chapter and I wanted to respond to that and talk to you about your request. However, you do not currently have your Private Messaging activated. Please activate it and send me a PM, I'd like to talk to you about Jace, I'm interested in what you can do, but there's some things we need to Iron out first. Other than that, please leave a comment saying what you thought of the chapter, I love to hear what I did wrong so that I can get better at writing, follow and favorite if you enjoy the story, and have yourselves a Damn Good Day, Dlahm out.


	32. Final Preperations

"I've got some bad news for you, Jace." Evan said over the radio the next day after breakfast at the Academy (Which was nothing like what Jace could ever cook up). "It seems like every Octoling in the camps have left. I set out last night to find the ones on the list, but nobody's here anymore. I think that they're moving up to attack."

Jace nodded even though he knew that Evan couldn't see him. "yeah, we've got an estimated one day left to prepare for their assault. They can't move a whole army up the valley as quickly as we can move our squads, so we've got at least a little bit of time. Is there any way possible for you to make it back to the Academy in time to help us defend?"

From the other end, Jace could hear Evan sigh. "It'll be tough to make it past all their guards, but I can try." He informed Jace in a resigned tone, "I already told Crista and Philip to run like hell, so they should be showing back up at the Academy before lunch. Hopefully, I'll see you tonight…" he took a moment and inhaled sharply, "If not, you better kick their asses and send them to hell."

It must've been very difficult for Evan the pacifist to say those words, but no harder than it would've been participating in this war. "Evan, if we win here, I promise you that you'll never have to see a gun again in your life."

Jace shut off his radio to end the conversation, all that was left to focus on is keeping the promise he just made. The squids at the Academy were terribly outnumbered… but they'd fight to the end, hopefully Evan would live through this no matter where he was.

 _It really is the last day._ Jace thought to himself as he left the office they kept the radio in. It was really the last day before the Octolings would be there. They'd been preparing for months, and now the moment was just a day away. The feeling was almost surreal, like a dream.

The months of stress and losing sleep were done, now only action would remain.

Every squid gathered up in the lobby and divided up into their units. Jace's group felt much smaller now that they were down three of their members. However, unit 2's ranks were swelling as all the newer squids were placed in that one, they'd grown by a good squad and a half of squids, which would equal plenty of Octarian deaths.

Once everybody was seated, Callie stood up on top of a bench. Everybody quieted down.

"We…" her voice cracked a little bit. Callie coughed and tried swallowing, the fear in her eyes was a sobering addition to the normally cheerful squid. "We know that in one day exactly, the Octarians will be knocking on our doors to gain access to the city. Their goals are very simple, to kill every Inkling and take Inkopolis, a capital of Inkling kind, as their own. Simply put, we're here to stop them."

The last sentence garnered several cheers from the crowd and Callie straightened herself and spoke more confidently.

"Tomorrow, we hold the defense of the first assault on Inkopolis in our hands. If we fail, then there is more than a good chance that Inkopolis will fall soon, and the first battle of the war will be lost. If we succeed, then there will not be a war between Inklings and Octarians, there will be a war between The Academy, and the forces of the Octarians. We are more than skilled to eliminate them."

Jace looked around the room at every Inkling he'd fought with: Ray, Ivy, Callie, Delfinia, Rose, Pavyl, Azure… all of them friends.

"We Agents," Callie continued, "Chose only the most highly skilled squids to be trained at the Academy. You are the best that Inkopolis has to offer in its defense. We've put you through training exercise after grueling exercise until you could eliminate most Inkling teams on your own. We've sent missions into Octoling territory time and time again, returning with minimal casualties if any. You've fought against this menace before, and you'll fight them tomorrow on our own terms, with our weapons, and our friends. This isn't about winning anymore, this is about making sure that those Octolings never even see the surface."

"YEAH!" came the cry from the crowd. Every Inkling thrust their weapon in the air and cheered. Jace stood up in the middle of his group.

"Blasting Fresh!" He yelled out, calling out his team name. From the crowd, team leaders stood up and called themselves out. "Squids in Black!" Came Ivy's yell. "The Flying Brushes." Ray. Behind him came all the other teams until finally: "Spitfire Splatoon" Callie, Marie, and 3 said together as a group.

It was an amazing show of unity, something Inklings were not usually known for, and it brought a tear to Jace's eye as he saw the leaders stand among their Inklings and declare their allegiance to one another. Callie wiped her own tear away and continued on.

"We are not just our individual teams anymore. We're the Splat Academy, the best of the best in the entire Inkling race. We are here to end this war before it begins."

"YEAH!" came the cry from the crowd again, this time everybody stood up and at attention.

"Congratulations, buckos." The Cap'n said quietly from the back of the room. Even though everybody was yelling, they still heard his tone and turned around, still at attention. "We are now officially an army. Now, it's time to act like one, Marie, if you may?"

Marie nodded and joined Callie on the bench. "Thanks to our engineers' work and Sheldon from Ammo Knights, we have high powered paint cannons set up next to windows and on the roof of the Academy. Unit 3, it will be your job to manage these and keep them firing on the enemy. Unit 2, you will assist them with this as needed. Each of you will find your individual assignments with the Cap'n. You walk up to him in a group, grab your file detailing your purposes, and move to your positions. Please do so now."

They waited until units 2 and 3 had moved out of the room, Marie turned her focus to unit 1. "Unit 1, you all know that you're the front lines, but how and where you'll be fighting depends on your squads. You'll be commanded directly by Agent 3, who'll be moving about you, organizing every one of your squads to maximum efficiency. Please follow him outside and he'll get you started on that."

The largest unit, unit 1, left the room, leaving only units 4, 5, and Jace's unit.

"Unit 5, you will act autonomously as support fire on the most part. Please move to the roof and to other advantage points at your own discretion and pick off Octarians. Focus on their leaders, if you see any Octarian bark out orders, shoot them down. However, if any of us Agents give you an order, it is still your duty to follow it."

The fifth unit meandered out of the room, hoisting chargers and other high powered splat weapons. And then there were two units left in the room, the fourth unit and Jace's unit. Marie stepped down from the bench and spoke to them on an even level.

"You're our best two units here. You're comprised of the best teams. Jace, you've proven that without the suit you and your team can take on any squid, and Ray you're our best turf war team and a celebrity for good reason. You two are our specialty teams. You're our aces. We will hold you back for a while, and it'll be your jobs to listen in for us to call you to a specific area. You may have any kind of job possible, hold back the enemies, take down a war machine, eliminate an enemy leader, you're gonna be the ones we can rely on the most. You will wait at the roof, and wait for further instruction."

She nodded Jace and Ray onwards, and the two units made their way to the ladder that led to the roof. There were already the other units on the roof, parts of units 5, 2, and 3, setting up sniper posts and cannons. As Jace climbed up the last rung, behind one of Ray's guys, he heard a splat ring out from one of the snipers and a laugh.

"That's one less Octarian for the attack." Said Pavyl, hi-fiving one of his teammates. He saw Jace climb up, and walked over with his squiffer.

" 'Sup Jace, how's things for your unit?"

Jace shrugged, "Don't know what we'll be doing until we do it. One of the Agents will keep us updated." He gestured to the squiffer now dripping ink, "What was up with that?"

A couple more shots rang out from the snipers, and a cannon loosed a blast that went wide.

"Some Octarians were sent ahead as scouts. We're making sure that the obvious ones don't make it back." Another cannon shot, this time the engineers on the cannon cheered loudly, apparently they wiped a couple octarians off the map. "If you'll excuse me, I've got a couple of Octolings to sink to hell."

Pavyl went back to his perch and aimed down his squiffer's barrel. He pulled the trigger, and a single shot rang out. Jace looked at where the shot landed over the railing, and saw only a purple stain at its point of impact. He nodded in approval of the shooting.

Jace, Celine, Ora, Delfinia, and Rose sat down together in a circle. Jace realized he was outnumbered 4 to 1 by girls… they were already talking about things Jace didn't want to hear: cute squids in other units. Ora didn't join in this conversation, she instead kept glancing at Jace with an embarrassed look on her face. Jace met her eyes at one point, and she looked at her shoes, cheeks glowing red.

It was kind of awkward sitting in on this conversation, so Jace chose to join other groups on the roof. The groups were happy to have a welcome distraction, and took great pleasure in examining the suit Jace was wearing if they hadn't done so before then. One group even let Jace fire the cannon at an octoling excursion… he missed, but it was still pretty cool to feel the power thrumming under his fingers as he let loose a massive inkstrike.

Ray was more than happy to talk to him. Despite having gone to the Academy for months with Ray, Jace never was able to talk to the celebrity. Their classes were at different times during the day, and Ray was surrounded quite often by his squad.

"You don't really know how long I've been a fan of you, Ray." Were the first words out of Jace's mouth… only the dumbest conversation opener in history. "Sorry, that made me sound like a creeper."

Ray didn't really mind though, he put a hand in Jace's and shook it, "Don't worry about it, dude. It's not often that I can really meet a fan who could give me trouble in a splat zone. I don't really think we've played against each other yet, man, have we?"

In all the times that Jace jumped into the splat zones, he never once fought against Ray, he'd have remembered that if he had. Jace shook his head, "I don't think so, that would be a good match though… imagine what the announcers would think when the two of us would be putting on such a good show."

"Haha, yeah man, the announcers would have a field day. Hey, once this is all over, you and I should have a one on one sometime, imagine how crazy that would be."

The idea sounded good, but it was obvious that the words 'this is all over' stuck in Ray's mouth for a moment. The air staled for a bit between the two before Jace decided to start up a conversation about brushes.

Partway through the day, Crista and Philip showed up at the Academy and walked up to the roof. Crista left right away to find Eddie, who was in unit 1 on the front lines, but Philip kept hanging out up there.

Crista rejoined the group once night fell. The agents came to the roof and divided people up into groups to take watch while everybody else slept on. When it was Jace's turn for the watch, he and Ora stayed awake for around 30 minutes while everybody slept at their feet. Ora kept looking through the scope on her E-Liter 3k and fiddling with it nervously.

"Are you ready for tomorrow?" Jace asked her, leaning against the small divider at the edge of the roof. Ora shook her head, "No… I'm not. It's too soon, so many are going to get hurt and die tomorrow. And what happens if we fail?"

Jace looked at his watch awkwardly, "If we fail… um. Well, if Octolings overrun us, I'm going to grab everybody I can and direct them to the city to regroup and fight again. If they overrun us, keeping the Academy secret won't be our priority, keeping people safe will be. We regroup in the city and fight there. Maybe civilians will join in and help us, we could finish off the remains of the Octarian army."

He neglected to tell her the Octolings anticipated plan would be to explode the dam and kill everybody in the whole city, that would only serve to make Ora more stressed. "We've got this. We've got our suits, we've got each other, we've got our training, we can take the Octolings. And I'll make sure that all of us get through the fight, I won't let anybody die on us."

Ora looked relieved. She moved her gaze to Jace, "Thank you, Jace."

"You're welcome, Ora."

She looked back down her scope, "Jace? Is it okay if I tell you something?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Jace, I'm in love with you. I had to say that before tomorrow, before everything happened… I'm kind of sad that I didn't say it before now, if I die tomorrow then I'll have had no time with you."

Jace held up his hand to stop her, Ora looked at him, afraid he'd turn her down.

"Ora, I'm not going to let you say the word 'die' at all. I'm not letting that happen, least of all to you. Right now, though, is really not the time for us to be distracted. Ora, I love you too, but we can't let this distract us right now. I promise you, I'll take you out to the fanciest restaurant in downtown Inkopolis the weekend after we send the Octarians packing."

And Jace leaned in to give Ora a quick kiss on her cheek, "Don't you worry, it'll be fine."

"I promise you."

A/N: Squidling '02, you still haven't removed the restriction on your private messaging. If you wish to talk about using Jace and his companions, you must take down those restrictions. I'm more than happy to talk about this.


	33. And so it begins

"HERE THEY COME!"

Some squid on the front lines yelled that out early the next morning. Jace was already half awake when he heard the cry, and his eyes shot open and his hand went right to his .52 Gal. In less than a second, Jace was up and taking cover at the edge of the roof, looking down over the valley where they anticipated the Octarians to come from.

It was a false alarm. The only Octarian Jace could see was one poking his head out just barely out of range of their cannons. From the roof, Jace could hear a squad leader berating his man, telling him to not scare everybody like that.

Jace looked at the roof, everybody was awake and in positions like he was; they were all ready to fight at the slightest glance of trouble. Ray was the first to relax, he leaned back and set down his weapon.

"Well then, now that we're all awake, what say somebody goes downstairs to get some breakfast?"

A couple of squad members in Pavyl's squad offered to go, when they left their sniper perches, Ora took over one with her E-Liter 3k. They were back in a few minutes though, and carrying breakfast burritos. They walked across the roof, handing out the burritos to whoever they saw without one.

The burritos were clearly microwaved, but were much better rations than what Jace thought that they'd be getting. There were scrambled eggs in the burritos, ham, cheese, and all of it melted in Jace's mouth: definitely not bad.

Ray was poking Jace in the shoulder, "Hey," he said, already done with his burrito, "Are you gonna finish that?"

This earned Ray a look like he was crazy, Jace stuffed the whole burrito in his face, "Yhefs" he mumbled. Swallowed. "I am." Ray laughed like a maniac, "Good man, Jace, you know what's up."

Ray was much more laid back now that he had a full stomach, he stretched out like a cat in the sun and closed his eyes.

"HERE THEY COME!" Came the same squid, once again mistaking the enemy for a scouting Octarian. "SHUT UP, DRAKE!" his squad leader yelled at him. The whole roof let out a collective chuckle, the tension from the first mistake was wearing of.

But as everybody finally started relaxing, following Ray's lead, one of Pavyl's men looked through his scope. "Holy crap," he mumbled, then dropped his gun to run to the radio unit on top of the roof. He pressed the button, fumbled for a bit, and then grit his teeth.

"Attention all units. Attention all units. First enemy squads have been spotted. I repeat, the first enemy squads have been spotted. Wake yourselves up and great ready to rock and roll."

Callie's voice crackled onto the radio, "We confirm your sighting, we see ten squads of enemy forces moving up the valley towards us and one war machine in their midst, there are more Octarians behind them. Do not fire yet, I repeat, do not fire."

In his helmet, Jace could hear all the radio chatter break out suddenly. Everybody was yelling at everybody and nothing was coherent enough to hear. Callie had to broadcast her next announcement over the P.A. because nobody could hear her.

"Attention all squids, do not fire on the enemy yet. That is all, wait for further instructions before firing!"

Jace waited for the chatter to break down on the lines before establishing a personal frequency with Callie, "Why aren't we firing yet?" he asked her over the radio line, "We could keep them at a distance and force them to poke at us, we have height advantages with our ink, we could keep them at a much longer range."

There was static for a moment before Callie replied, "Jace, they're going to bring a lot of their men into our range if we let them walk towards us, as well as their first war machines. We've still got some of those explosives you were testing, and I had some squids set up mines using them under the cover of darkness last night. We wait until they're in range, then we fire on them and blow up the mines at the same time… this'll be much more effective than just poking at them."

Jace severed the connection with a quick "Got it", then he walked over to the edge of the roof and looked out at where the enemy was gathering. Celine walked to his side and pressed binoculars into his hand and gestured for him to look out at the enemy. He held the binoculars up to his eyes.

The Octarians were approximately half a mile away and being led by one four man Octoling squad that was yelling at the other Octarian squads to keep moving. The other nine squads were just regular Octarians who kept trudging along in unison. In the midst of the ten squads, there was a single machine operated by four Octolings, it looked to be like a moving cannon, or a massive mortar. It wasn't hooked up to any ink, however, and had a manual reloading system that consisted of an opening in the side of the mortar.

It must fire explosives instead of ink.

This was much more dangerous all of a sudden, Ink splatters and splashes, but explosives raze anything in the path of its fire. If all the war machines are using explosives instead of ink, then the Academy itself, the building, would be in grave danger. Jace realized why Callie is having them let the Octarians closer to disable the first war machine, if it gets off a single shot it'll destroy a large portion of the Academy.

As Jace watched, even more Octarian units came into view until there were a couple thousand Octarians lined up in their squads. The Academy only had a fraction of that manpower.

And scattered throughout the Octarian squads, there were squads of Octolings barking orders. The farther back one got in the Octarian lines, the more Octoling squads there were, until the whole last two lines were just Octoling troops.

There was a grand total of six different war machines in the Octarian forces, none of which looked like they'd fire ink… a bad sign indeed.

Over the radio, Callie started talking, "Remember, do not fire until told to do so. Units 5 and 6, please send your leaders down to the foyer with two of your fastest members."

Jace put down the binoculars and handed them back to Celine. "Ora, your suit is all charged up?"

She nodded.

"Come with me then."

Ora, Jace, Ray, and one of Ray's men who called himself 'Epsilon' met up with Callie, Marie, and 3 in the foyer.

"What is it, Callie?" Ray asked her.

"We just got a transmission from the Octarian commander on a public frequency, he's asking to talk to representatives halfway between our two forces. The seven of us will meet him."

Ora held up her Octoshot with Inkling ink, "It's a trap." She said confidently, hoisting the gun on her shoulder.

"It definitely could be." Marie said.

"No, it is." Argued Ora, "Trust me, this is going to be a trap. I know this guy well enough to know that he'll never put himself in harm's way, and will always take the underhanded route out of things. He's very slippery. He'll have a whole squad of sharpshooters watch you, and once you're in range, he'll pick you off… he won't even show his face, he'll just wait for you to show yours. It's underhanded, but it works. If you want my opinion, just engage them right now."

Jace liked the sound of that, especially in comparison to what the other option was. "Yeah, are they over our traps yet?"

Callie took a peek out the door then held up her radio, "Pavyl, what's the enemy's backline's distance to us?"

It took a few moments for Pavyl to answer back. "Seven hundred meters."

"Thank you." She nodded and shut off the radio, "Their backline is two hundred meters off from the nearest trap, but their mid lines are in range of our snipers and cannons." Callie looked at Jace, "I'm going to need you to do me a favor."

"Yeah?"

Two minutes later Jace left the safety of the Academy and started walking towards the Octarian lines on his own. "I'm not entirely sure about my safety in this, Callie, why am I walking into their trap again?"

"To catch them off guard, the second they see you they're going to relax and get ready to kill our leader in one swoop in order to demoralize all of us. Before you get in range of them, we're going to fire on them while they're relaxed. Just give us ten more seconds of you walking."

Jace could hear everybody readying themselves to fire on the Octarians in his helmet, but ten seconds were more than a lifetime in a fight. Jace kept glancing at his sides, checking for anybody flanking him, but it seemed like the only threats were in front of him. Some Octarian fired at Jace with an Octoshot, but the shot fell short, however close enough so that it wasn't even funny, Jace looked at the ink stain yards off and tensed up.

"3. 2. 1."

Jace clenched his muscles.

"RUN JACE RUN!" Callie shouted in his ear, Jace turned tail and started sprinting back towards the Academy's walls. Behind him he heard the explosions ring out, but whether that was the Academy's traps or the Octarian's mortars, Jace had no idea.

He looked back for one second and saw a massive explosion erupting out of the ground. It launched Octarians and Octolings alike, and half the war machines in one go.

Dirt and rocks hit Jace in the face, so he turned around and kept running.

The Octarians finally started firing at Jace, and purple ink and water began splashing around him as he ran, drawing lines in the rock. Jace turned to look for one moment and almost tripped as he avoided a line of purple ink, so he kept looking straightforward and running in a serpentine pattern to avoid the enemy ink.

A large rock hit Jace in the back of the leg, and he fell to his knees. Jace felt his ink slowly fall down the back of his leg, but he got up and began limping his way back to the Academy. The Academy returned fire at the Octarians, and a rainbow of colors launched over Jace's head and into what remained of the enemy front lines.

"JACE, are you okay?" Callie asked him, seeing the limp in his step after he went down.

Jace grunted, "Just a rock, let me walk it off. Am I out of range yet?"

"Yeah, you're safe, but keep making your way for us, odds are that the Octarians will counterattack us in moments."

But they didn't, Jace trudged himself back into the Academy and into the offices to grab medical supplies, but as he went back to the roof, the Octarians were still waiting. They had retreated slightly to just out of range of the snipers of the Academy, but were still waiting… apparently regrouping.

"What the hell?" Jace said to Ora, "Why haven't they attacked yet?"

"I think that they're planning something and getting casualty counts, we blew up almost half of their front lines, it looks like we killed somewhere around five hundred or more of them with just the initial explosion."

The rubble launched from the explosions had even reached the top of the Academy, there was a fine layer of dirt on top of the roof, it was no wonder the explosions had caused so much damage. Jace remembered back to when he saved Marie from one of the explosions, and he wondered how he survived the blast… it must've been a miracle.

"Well, best get ourselves ready, the real battle is just starting."


	34. The final fight part 1

The second Jace reached the top, Ora and Celine demanded to see the wound. They grabbed a medic from another squad and had the medic bandage the cut in Jace's leg. As they did so, Jace heard yells from the front lines. The Octarians were launching their first attacks.

KABOOOM!

The ground shook in front of the Academy and rocks sprayed the roof. Screams of pain from the ground troops, one of the war machines had fired it's explosive. Two more explosions missed, meaning that all three of the machines had to be reloaded.

"Ray, get your squad ready for deployment." Marie yelled into their radio frequency.

Jace could hear Agent 3 shouting orders at the front lines, yelling at them to get up and regroup from the explosion.

"SOUND OFF, WHO'S HURT!" 3 yelled out. "EVERYBODY STILL UP, RETURN FIRE!"

A wave of rainbow ink launched itself from the Academy a second time and melted the Octarians who started to advance, but for every Octarian in the wave that was melted, two others took its place and redoubled their pace.

Jace pushed the medic off of his leg, "I'm fine, get to the front lines and help people there." He grunted at the medic. The squid nodded and packed his kit to move out.

Jace's helmet radio shouted static at him, and Callie's voice was in his ear. "Jace, there's two groups of Octarians coming up our left side along the ridge of the valley, take care of them."

"Can do." He nodded at his squad. "We're moving out. Follow me!"

All six of his squad hoisted their weapons and followed Jace to the bottom floor of the Academy. The first explosion had hit closer than they originally thought, a massive hole was blown in the lobby of the Academy and bodies littered the ground. They weren't even fully intact, there were squid parts everywhere, and ink covered the ground. Ora moved carefully through the grounds, trying not to step on any ink.

"There's two groups of Octarians on our left, we're taking them out." Jace explained while they moved. He hit the radio button on his helmet, "Callie, do you have any other info on these groups, we don't want to go in blind."

"One of them is an Octoling squad. That's all we know."

Jace nodded and relayed the info to his squad, "Take it carefully." They all nodded.

Celine took point with her splattershot and pointed at a series of rocks. The Octarians weren't visible from their current position, "I bet that they're hiding behind those and waiting for us to come to them. Second we pass them, they open fire and melt us."

But Celine was shoved aside as Delfinia strode forward and threw an Inkling-ink filled bomb at the rocks. The ink exploded all over the rocks, but there were no screams of Octarians dying. "Nope, check our six!"

The second she shouted that out, Octarian ink was launched at the squad, Jace saw streams of the watery ink being flung everywhere, but by some good grace they weren't hit right away. Jace turned and dove for cover behind anything he could. His squad returned fire.

Three of the regular Octarians were killed before they learned that their ambush, while well made, had failed. Ora ran past Jace with her speed suit active and blasted the rest of the Octarians before they could react, the Octolings aimed at her, but Rose and Philip sprayed them until they were nothing more than puddles.

"Enemy squads down." Jace reported to Callie as everybody did a damage check to their armor. Ora had taken some shots to her left shoulder, but the armor held and Jace took a little time to carefully drain the spongey armor of all its water.

Jace could hear 3 still yelling out orders to his troops, but it seemed like the new troops were buckling under pressure. "Jace," Callie said, "Go to 3 and help out, we need somebody to push a little while Ray's group tries to take down the first war machine."

"Roger." Jace started moving for the front line, "We're going to help out 3."

They weren't far from the front lines, and it was total pandemonium up there. 3 was standing at the front of the troops, trying to rally them, while most of the troops acted on their own. They'd launch ink on their own volition, and get shot because of it. While Jace watched, four of the inklings tried their own little barrage and paid the ultimate price for it.

"3!" Jace shouted as he approached, dodging Octarian ink like he was born to do it. "We're here to help!"

3 took valuable milliseconds to look at Jace, "Take half your unit and rally the left side, give me Rose, Philip, and Celine and I'll do the same with the right. In thirty seconds start a barrage of ink on your half of the enemy, I'll do the same."

"Got it!"

Jace ducked back down under cover and pointed at Rose, Philip, and Celine. "Go with 3 and follow his orders for right now!" They hustled up to 3, who proceeded to run to the center of the right side of the Inkling forces.

"Marie!" Jace yelled into his radio, "Time a barrage from the cannons for thirty seconds from now!"

She yelled her response and Jace could hear her upstairs screaming at the cannons, berating them into following her orders despite the din of the battle.

Jace got up out of cover in front of the Inkling lines and fired at two approaching Octarians, taking them down quickly.

"INKLINGS! HOLD YOUR FIRE FOR A MOMENT!" Jace yelled at the lines, taking down several more Octarians before holding his own fire. "HOLD!" He yelled once again, ducking behind cover as the Octoling squads tried to pick him off, seeing him as a leader.

Surprisingly, the squads on the front lines listened to Jace and held themselves, taking aim like they did in training to let loose a massive wave.

Thirty seconds was an insane amount of time, and several more inklings fell as stray shots were angled at them by the crack shots in the Octoling units. But Jace counted down carefully until finally… "FIRE!"

From both sides of the Inkling lines, a wave of ink flew out and devastated the Octarians who foolishly approached while they had held their shots. Jace jumped the cover and yelled out to those he'd just commanded, "FOLLOW ME!"

A quick glance showed that the right side did the same, and moments later the cannons started firing their own barrage, destroying the Octarians who had followed up the first wave. The Inkling lines charged forwards and started getting to close combat with the Octarians.

Ink was flying everywhere, both Octarian ink and Inkling, and Jace looked at Ora and told her to go back to the roof to back them up. She complied quickly before a stray shot hit her.

It was extremely hectic fighting, and a lot of Octarians fell before they could strike back, not expecting such organization from the inklings. However, the Inklings lost many as they did their charge, and Jace motioned for them to take cover and engage them carefully.

Jace himself forced himself back into the fight at close range, diving into a squad of four Octolings on his own. The four Octolings turned, and one of them struck at Jace with his gun's butt. Jace could feel his injuries strain his body, but he turned deftly and grabbed at the gun, swinging it around in his own hand into the skull of another Octoling. He felt the bones in the Octoling's face collapse inwards and the Octoling fell in a pool of his own ink. The two Octolings still with their weapons tried shooting Jace from close range, but Jace twisted in mid movement and avoided the shots. The Octoling ink was dangerously close, and Jace ducked under the next volley to sweep out the legs of those two Octolings. Returning focus to the Octoling he grabbed the gun from, Jace blasted him in the face with his own ink and then fired on the Octolings he swept.

The other squads saw Jace fight a whole Octoling squad and win, and they began focusing on him. Jace outran their aim, always one step ahead of the last ink shot, and fired his own ink at them. The Octoling squad he fired at dodged his own shots with skill equal of any in the Academy and rushed at him.

Jace ran for a pillar of rock he knew had some useful spots to parkour off of, firing the whole way. The Octolings gave chase.

They thought they'd cornered him as Jace ran for the pillar, the Octolings fired on Jace to try and pin him in as they approached. Jace smiled as he saw them pen him in.

He at the pillar directly and jumped at it. He felt his shoes hit the stone and Jace pushed off of the pillar to gain extra height. He spun himself in mid air as he was launched and dropped a splat bomb he'd filled while running at the feet of the Octolings. They couldn't react in time and they disappeared in a wave of Jace's signature purple ink.

Those in the front lines saw Jace's maniac fighting and took it on themselves to make sure he wasn't pressured, they focused volley after volley into the Octarians firing on Jace, taking advantage of their focus. An Octoling broke through the volley, though, and was about to fire on Jace when an E-liter shot rang out and Ora picked the Octoling off.

The snipers began getting in on the fight, picking off key targets as they showed themselves in the Octoling lines, and one of the War Machines blew up in a plume of smoke as Ray's group destroyed it.

Cheers went up from the Inkling lines and they redoubled their efforts.

But they weren't in time to stop the two other War Machines. As Jace watched, they launched their explosives. One explosive rammed itself right in the middle of the front lines and the explosion killed off half the squids Jace was in charge of. The shockwave after the explosion disrupted them further by shoving every squid away from their friends.

The other explosive flew towards the Academy and blew a massive hole in it. Smoke began to rise from the Academy as a fire got started.

"RETREAT!" 3 yelled into his radio and outside of it. The Inklings broke their lines and ran back to their original cover, shooting over their shoulder.

The Octolings began focusing their own fire and melted quite a few Inklings before they got back to their lines.

"Casualty count!" Jace yelled out to his side of the front lines, "Who's missing?"

And the count came, Jace relayed his count to 3, who groaned.

"That's not a good sound, 3, what's bad?"

"Jace, head inside, we're going to figure out what to do with the Cap'n." 3 didn't even say what was so wrong, which led Jace's spine to shiver. Jace looked over the front lines and saw Philip, Crista, Celine, Delfinia, and Rose running for him. He let out a sigh of relief, at least his squad was okay.

"Guys, get to Ora on the roof and regroup with me in the lobby… or what's left of it. I'll be right back."

Jace ran inside and caught up to 3, who was running for the offices. Inside of the office, Callie and the Cap'n were shouting orders into different radios and trying to figure out what's happening. They looked up as 3 and Jace ran in.

"Cap'n." 3 said. Cuttlefish waved for him to hurry it up.

"We've got our first charge's casualty counts. Around a quarter of our initial force has been killed, and another quarter is injured or missing. We're down to around half of our initial force."

The Cap'n thought for a moment. "We're going to need to retreat to the surface."

3 nodded and relayed the order to his unit's leaders. "We're moving back. Make your way to the pipe and secure it for everybody."

He spoke to the Cap'n again, "They're moving. After the charge they're working much more like a team. At first they were too individual. We may yet pull this off if we retreat to the city."

Callie nodded, "They can't get their War Machines into the city at least, we just have to hold them in the plaza, perhaps? Can't let them get themselves to city hall or the dam. If they get to any of the projected objectives, we're gonna really have a bad time."

"Now," Cap'n said, "Let's get moving, relay the orders to everybody under you and move out. Have the mechanics set our cannons to autofire and set the range to one hundred meters in front of the pipes. Saturate the grounds and buy us some time. Jace, get your people up to the pipe first, we can't have your Octolings get injured just because of some lazy planning. Now go!"

Jace ran for his squad.

Ora had switched out her E-Liter for the Octoshot again, and had refilled her ink. Everybody else was looking a little ragged, most of them had taken some sort of hit… at least their armor hadn't broken. "Guys," he said, "We're retreating back to the city to hold off the Octarians there. We're going to go up first so we don't get hit by any return fire from our forces. Now let's get moving, double time guys."

They sprinted for the pipes.

 _A/N: So how's the action? I'm keen to know what you think of the action scenes most of all, since I've done a lot of studying since the last chapter on how to make good action scenes. Please give me your opinion, and have a great day! Dlahm17 out!_


	35. The Final Fight Part 2

"You squads! Move those cars over to the underpass right next to the pipe! You three, get two mines from Marie and Callie, plant one right on top of the pipe, plant the other ten yards away! And you two get Pavyl and his men on roofs here, here, and here!" Agent 3 was belting out orders like a drill sergeant, all the squids obeyed instantly, jumping to work. Jace watched as the groups got to work at fortifying the area around the pipe.

Agent 3's plan consisted of walling off the pipe, and aiming down concentrated fire to anybody who showed their face. The pipe wasn't large at all; they'd only be able to go up one at a time.

"Of course, they're going to have some sort of a plan to get around this." 3 told Jace and Ray, "They're probably going to have a couple of Octarians come up and see what's going on… the poor saps are going to be some sort of bait for us to take. We're going to hold our fire until they think it's safe."

"They won't think it's safe, though." Ray said, "No commander would send a large force up until a perimeter is established."

"It's a game of rock paper scissors." Jace then speculated. "Either group can either wait, poke, or commit. Committing to an attack will beat out a poking party. A poking party will be able to avoid the bait of waiting. And waiting will destroy a committing group due to the fact that there's better positions and they can wait for the whole force to be exposed."

3 smiled, "Callie taught both of you pretty damn well. It's true that through conventional means it'll be a random guess. But you both forgot that the Octarians have explosives as well. Regarding that, odds are the scouts will come up, go back down, then they'll blow up a large portion of the pipe so they can all come up at once. Then it'll be open battle."

They all knew that the Academy would have the advantage once again, they were in better positions now and the Octarians couldn't use their war machines this time around. It'll be much more based on skills instead of artillery, the only problem was that they still were outnumbered by a ludicrous amount.

"Mines set!" Came the call from the squids placing the explosives. The other groups were still moving cars to the pipes, some of the smarter squids had worked together to drive a car over and then flipped it on its side to take up more room.

Jace moved on from 3, looking for Callie and Marie, he found them arguing with the police force that was already there. The police were looking shocked at the army of Inklings moving a barrier in place, in matching armor and with high caliber weapons.

"But- but you can't just do that." The officers were saying, "This is public property. Those are people's cars." The two officers in question were a partnership of an urchin and a crab. "We're going to have to take all of you into custody."

"Do that, and this whole city goes down into the waves." Callie said in a low voice. Jace had never heard her that angry before, she was actually pretty scary. "You take us out of the question, and this whole city dies before they get a chance to scream."

"But-"

"THERE IS NO BUTS YOU IGNORANT CRUSTACEAN!" Callie shouted in his face, "THERE IS AN ARMY OF OCTARIANS COMING UP THAT PIPE RIGHT NOW TO KILL EVERY SINGLE INHABITANT OF THIS CITY! HELP US, OR GET OUT OF OUR WAY!"

The two police officers flinched backwards at the sheer power of Callie's voice. The crab took a few steps back as Callie stepped forwards threateningly, they must not have thought that the squid sisters could be so furious.

Marie put a hand on Callie's shoulder, then addressed the officers. "You know who we are, officers." The two officers nodded. "Good. Then know this and understand that I'm not lying to you. These squids you see here have lost friends so far today just trying to hold off this invasion. The Octarians have killed many of us as we tried to protect you without you knowing it, but now it's going to reach the city. Either you help us out, or you get out of here and get as many people out of here as you can, there's no reason for more people to die."

It seemed like Marie's calm voice broke through the officer's shock and fear, and reached a more rational form of them. The two of them pulled out their weapons, standard issue splattershots that were the main weapon of the police force of Inkopolis. "Miss, tell us where to go." They said in unison. Marie took one look at them, and pointed at their cop car… which was now in the barricade. "Go get some more help. Get your chief down here right away."

The two of them looked at the cop car with a weird look, then rushed into the now sideways car and accessed the radio.

Jace smiled, "That was pretty impressive."

Callie and Marie both returned the gaze, "They aren't the only ones who can play good cop bad cop. That was all planned." The two said together.

"So what do you want my squad and Ray's squad to do?" Jace was very to the point, it wasn't going to be long before the Octarians regrouped and launched an attack. The squid sisters thought for a moment, then Callie snapped her fingers.

"I got it. What we need is for you and Ray to be here in the fight, but ready to split off and prevent any outlying Octarians from getting around us. We're going to position you on rooftops and get you two to coordinate your squad's fire, keep an eye out for any enemies trying to get away. If any get around our main forces, it'll be your job to neutralize them."

"Building off of that, let's have your squad's job be defending the Dam specifically, Ray and his squad will take the city hall." Marie added thoughtfully. "How does that sound, Jace?"

"No problems here. I'll go tell Ray."

Jace could hear cop cars in the distance, coming to the pipes. Squids, Urchins, and other species looked at the spectacle occurring in the plaza, curious or fearful: it didn't matter. Two adult squids came down to the plaza and looked around, questioning 3 on what was going on. 3 didn't beat around the bush, and very soon there was a large crowd of squids running for the city limits, trying to get away from the battleground that was about to be in place. As the cop cars got closer, it was clear that they were blaring out a similar message using speakers, apparently the two officers Callie talked to were pretty scared and may have exaggerated the story a bit to their chief. The cop cars were telling people that an invading force of over a million Octarians were coming with war machines.

Some of Ray's fans came up to him and asked him if they could help, they had brought their weapons with them and looked ready to fight, but Ray turned them down. "You all need to stay safe," he said calmly, "Leave this to us. We can't have anybody getting hurt, especially since I'll be needing you to cheer me on after we kick these Octarians out." He gave them a grim smile, his eyes betraying the confidence he tried to have.

The Inkling ranks swolled a tiny bit with the addition of the police officers, but the officers were all new to the Academy and had a hard time integrating, eventually the two forces just mingled and did their own thing.

Not an hour after the message was put out, many of the inhabitants had run, fleeing the city like refugees. But too many remained, not trusting the police, not willing to run, or unable to run, everywhere Jace looked he saw faces peering out of buildings at him. It was unnerving.

Jace gripped his trusty .52 gal and felt to his back where his Octobrush lay, it was almost time.

From his rooftop position with his squad, he could see the pipe quite clearly. He was able to see the first Octarian's head poke out quite clearly when the Octarian commander had clearly decided that it was time to attack.

"COME ON YOU INKLINGS, COME AND GET ME!"

But nobody fired yet.

They'd all been briefed on this before, do not strike the first Octarian. But the police were less trained, less disciplined, than the Academy, and one deputy pulled his trigger as the Octarian shouted his challenge.

The Octarian ducked before the shot hit him.

The sheriff berated his man. Telling him to back off and run if he was going to disobey orders like that.

Exactly sixty seconds after the Octarian went back down the pipe, the pipe exploded in a fury of shrapnel.

"CHARGE!" came the Octarian command, and their forces flooded out of the pipe like an anthill kicked over. Purple ink was flying everywhere.

"FIRE!" Callie screamed out over the din. The Inklings returned their fire, concentrating everything they could into the small area barricaded in. The Octarians rushed to the cars, taking cover and trying to push the car over, but Pavyl's group was positioned off to the side and had a clear view of them. A few squiffer shots downed the first few Octarians pushing, but more came, overwhelming the car and pushing it over with a crash and a shriek.

The mines exploded at this moment, throwing Octarian bodies everywhere. Their ink sprayed a few squids in the front, who were forced to run back to the back lines to get medical attention. One ink caught the brunt of it and lay still, the Octarian blood-ink burning holes into his body.

Jace and his squad fired as much ink as they could onto the pipe. They went through tank after tank, but the Octarians just didn't stop. They were as numerous as grains of sand, pouring out of the pipe to charge the Inkling lines. Some of the Octarians jumped up in front of inkling fire to fling small explosives at the Inkling lines before the explosives went up in flames. Those few Octarians who committed suicide to do so were devastating to the Inklings, and the Academy forces had to retreat back to the edge of the plaza to regroup, giving the Octarians ground on them.

Two Octoling squads completely ignored the Inkling fire and made a blitz for the right side of the plaza where Ray was watching. One squad was burned through in seconds, but the second seemed to avoid all the Inkling fire to make it past the lines.

"RAY, YOU'RE UP!" Jace shouted at him from his rooftop. He didn't think Ray heard, but Ray definitely knew what to do, and his whole squad jumped down on top of the Octarians, engaging in furious hand to hand combat. It took only seconds, but by the time Ray and his squad were done, the whole Octoling squad had been ravaged. But not without cost, one of Ray's squadmates lay unmoving amidst the Octarian ink, melting slowly, and one other squadmate was nursing a serious wound to the leg.

A leg wound was more than enough to take a soldier out of the fight, if you can't walk or run, you can't fight.

Jace took a few seconds to try and asses his squad's current strength. Philip had been hit in the upper leg in the madness, and was limping his way to medical attention, and Crista was nursing her hand. On closer inspection, she'd lost her ring finger, Ora was trying to get her friend to calm down and let her help. Rose and Delfinia were shoulder to shoulder, firing a constant barrage down at the Octarian forces. Celine was ducking under cover at the moment while the Octarians focused ink at her. She saw Jace looking at her and gave him a thumbs up.

"DOING OKAY, JACE?" She yelled out at him. He nodded, "YEAH, I'M FINE!"

In his helmet, Jace saw the lines of Inklings ebbing and flowing in his map. Jace saw a group of Inklings break off from the main lines and run down a side alley, then return, presumably to eliminate some Octarians. Too many Inklings on the map weren't moving at all, even the small amount that showed some sort of bodily motions like firing or aiming. Often the little dots on the map would shake in place or something when Inklings were firing, or reloading, but these dots were still… meaning more Inklings were falling to the Octarians.

Jace poked his head back up over cover and unloaded his .52 gal into a squad of Octolings approaching the Inkling lines.

Rose's voice broke through the ruckus to yell at Jace, "Jace! Two squads of Octolings just passed us! What do you want us to do?" She sounded afraid. Jace looked at her, "Let's go!"

He pointed at Crista, "Stay here! Or better yet, get some medical help! We've gotta go stop these Octarians!" Crista nodded and moved to get off of the roof. Jace and the rest of his squad slid off the side of the roof jumped down behind the building where they weren't getting shot at. They saw the Octolings turn a corner and disappear, moving their way towards the dam.

"Come on, guys!" Jace yelled, and they charged after the two squads.

The Octarians were far ahead of them, running as fast as they could towards the dam, which was on the edge of the city. They always stayed just out of range of their weapons, even when Ora had switched to her E-liter they would turn a corner and be just out of sight whenever she aimed at them.

"Ora, does your suit have any charge left?" Jace asked her. She took a quick glance at something on the inside of her suit, then started switching out her E-liter for her Octoshot. "Just enough, I think."

And she started speeding up, hitting the ground hard like a sprinter. She became a blur, running faster than anybody there and began catching up to the Octolings. One of them must've heard her, as they turned and fired as they did so. Ora ducked, but her foot caught on the ground, and she tripped over herself.

"GAH!" She yelled as she tumbled head over heels into the ground. Jace put on his own burst of speed and tried to catch up to Ora. He stopped once next to her and knelt down.

"You okay?" He asked, helping Ora to her feet. She put a little weight on her foot, but it seemed okay. "Yeah, I'm fine." She looked up to where the Octolings disappeared behind a wall, "We're losing them!" She started running again, limping ever so slightly after her injury.

Jace felt his own injuries hindering his running, his body still hadn't fully healed up from his last excursion into the realm of 'almost dead inkling land'. They kept running, though, trying to make up time on the Octolings.

Thankfully, the Octolings weren't going to be any faster than them, they couldn't swim through their own ink any more due to the water in it. So at least Jace had that going for him and his squad.

They began making up ground on the Octolings, slowly but surely, despite having Ora's injured foot to slow down for. Eventually, they could see the Octolings not too far ahead, but they were still closing in on the Dam, it was less than half a mile away at this point. Jace began taking shots at the Octolings whenever he could, but he was too far away to do anything, still.

The dam loomed ever closer to them with every step, a symbol of protection from water. Soon that symbol of protection would be a harbinger of death as water crashed through the city, killing any still left in it.

The Octolings reached the dam a whole half a minute before the Inklings could. They were climbing up the maintenance ladder to reach the top of the dam. Jace ran himself to the ladder and started climbing up as fast as he could.

"Jace," Rose called out, "There's explosives down here though!"

Jace called out over his shoulder, "Get their adhesives off of the dam and get them far away from here." Most of his squad got to doing that, but Ora and Celine both were right behind him, climbing the ladder as fast as they could.

The second that the Octolings got to the top of the dam they turned right around and started firing on Jace. Ink shots sprayed everywhere around him, and one shot landed right on his shoulder, stinging like hell. "Damn." He said, chuckling a bit as that was what he was climbing.

Celine took a second to fill a bomb once she was close enough to throw it, and flung it up to the top of the dam. Screams were heard and the fire stopped, leaving them able to get up the rest of the way unhindered.

At the top of the dam, there were three Octolings setting charges all over the place. As they saw Jace they opened fire on him, blasting at the Inkling with their Octoshots.

Jace went to one knee and picked off two of them with two shots each, the third ran for it, dropping charges as she went. The only other Octolings Jace saw were melting from Celine's bomb. One held up a hand, moaning aloud for mercy, but it was too late to save the Octoling and it melted down into a puddle in seconds.

Celine went to detach the bombs currently on the dam while Jace and Ora ran after the last Octoling, if it got a chance to blow call its friends to blow the dam, they'd be done for.

They ran as fast as they could, catching up to the Octoling easily as the Octoling was already injured. By what, they never knew. The water was not three feet away from them, clear and pure as it just sat there, waiting for something to fall in.

"There's nowhere to run!" Jace yelled out, firing at the Octoling and missing, "Surrender!"

"Like hell Inkling scum!" The Octoling shouted back, tripping over itself as it tried to run and fire at the same time. "You all can burn in water!"

Ora fired on the Octoling with her Octoshot, spraying its left arm limp. The Octoling's skin held, and whatever armor it had protected it, but the arm went limp like the nerves had been removed.

"AGH!" The Octoling screamed and kept firing at Jace. Two of the shots hit Jace's chest, but didn't pierce his armor. "YOU FOOLS! YOU'RE ALL GONNA DIE! AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!" The Octoling taunted Jace, continuing its fire. Jace dodged all of the second salvo and fired once at the Octoling's legs.

The Octoling fell to its knees and tried to drag itself further. It turned over and reached into the pocket under its limp arm. In its hand was a flare gun… the signal, most likely, to blow the dam. Ora shot the Octoling in its chest, but it refused to die, it kept fumbling with the gun, trying to hold the trigger in its shaking hand.

Jace approached it, walking up, and kicked away the flare gun. The Octoling started to laugh, "You're all IDIOTS! YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Jace gave it one shot with his trusty .52 Gal, and it finally died, melting away. But it wasn't done yet, there was one last thing the Octoling left…

A ticking bomb, already armed, and set to blow up in less than a second.

Jace turned and tackled Ora, trying to protect her.

The bomb exploded.

A fiery blast engulfed the air around Jace and Ora, shrapnel flew everywhere, and the shockwave from the bomb flung Jace and Ora off the edge of the dam… and into the water.

They plunged into the clear water.

It was as if magma was eating away Jace's skin. It was worse than the fire, worse than the explosion when he protected Marie. It was as if the water was peeling away layer after layer of skin to reveal his innards. The pain was more than Jace could bear, he began blacking out… a fitting end to a Hero's tale.

 _Ora._

No, it wasn't the end. Jace opened his eyes, exposing them to the water. His helmet and suit were protecting him ever so slightly… he wasn't dead yet.

Ora floated centimeters away from him, and he grabbed her and began kicking for the surface. All the cumulative wounds on his legs burdened him down, but he kept going. The water felt like it was holding him in, trying to keep him in its depths to be flung downwards to a watery grave. Jace resisted the urge to give up and let it take him.

The pain was lighting up every nerve Jace had, burning him to what he presumed would be his death, but he kept kicking for the edge of the dam.

There was a ladder nearby, its purpose for getting builders in and out of the dam when it was originally built, and Jace latched on and pulled Ora with him.

His body took over and pulled him up, rung by rung, until they were no longer in the water. Jace yanked Ora over the edge and dragged himself there too. Celine was already with them, ripping off Jace's armor, trying to get the water off of him. Jace was barely aware that his skin was smoking.

"C- Ce- Celine." He managed out, his mouth had remained closed in the water. "Is Ora…?"

Celine didn't answer too focused on her task, she ripped open Ora's armor as well and took off both Jace's and Ora's clothes before the water soaked into them. She sopped up the remaining armor on Jace and Ora's body's with whatever dry objects she had on her before finally stopping.

Jace's body still stung, though the water was no longer on him, but the blackness was finally taking its hold on Jace. Blacking out seemed the best option for him, an escape from the eternity of pain that the water brought to him.

But would he wake up if he went to sleep?

He had the faint realization that he was completely naked, but he didn't care… anything so that he was still alive.

The blackness kept creeping on Jace's vision, consuming all he could see, and the last thought Jace could coherently remember was _Is she okay? Is Ora okay?_

And then the darkness took him.

* * *

Jace was surprised when he woke up in the Inkopolis Hospital. He was on a fluffy white bed with different cords and fluids hooked up to his body. There was a bag with his specific ink blood above him, the ink slowly seeping into his body… an IV drip. Jace blinked a few times in the bright light that was shining above him.

"I'm… alive?" He asked the empty air above him.

Jace tried to sit himself up, but found that his body was still too weak, instead he was forced to settle for merely moving his head around. His legs were both raised in the air, supported by hanging slings, and his arms were at his side and bandaged. Through a break in the bandages he saw his skin, bright white and yellow, like it was horribly burnt in spots.

"What in… what in the world happened?" He thought aloud. He remembered passing out, expecting death to come to him and hoping he saved Ora. Nothing after that was in his memories.

"I'll tell you what happened," a voice at Jace's feet said, "You're the luckiest damn squid I've ever seen." The sound of a chair on wheels filled the air, and an Urchin Doctor rolled into view. "You survived for around ten seconds in water… a physical impossibility for an inkling. No Inkling has survived a single second when fully submerged, yet you survived long enough to get out. How were you even submerged? There's no place with water like that in all of Inkopolis."

He wrote something down on a clipboard hanging next to Jace's IV. "You're one of those fighters, aren't you? The ones that saved Inkopolis?"

Jace tried nodding, the doctor must've gotten his intent.

"You guys saved us. I hadn't left, there were patients that needed care, but then there were explosions everywhere and Octarians were invading. But a group of Inklings held them back. What did they call themselves? The Splat Academy?"

Jace tried nodding a second time. "It's what we were trained for." He told the doctor. "We had to do that, it's our job."

"A damn fine job you did," the doctor said warmly, "The Octarians never made it past the edge of the plaza. The mayor of Inkopolis is going to hold a parade in the Academy's honor in a week, and repairs are already underway of the plaza and top of the dam. There were explosions at the top of the dam too, I'm glad that ended up being nothing. Where were you in all of this again?"

"I'm the one who made sure that the dam stayed nothing. Me and my squad."

"So you're the ones who…" He looked at Jace's clipboard again, "Oh my word, that's how you were submerged."

Jace tried relaxing, but his body wouldn't allow it. "How long was I out, doctor?"

"After I started caring for you? It's been around a week. At first we all thought you were going to die."

"A week?"

"A week." The doctor confirmed, "And I'm surprised it wasn't longer. You're a very resilient Inkling, Jace."

"What about my companions, my squad. There had to have been an Octoling brought into here, is she okay?" Jace asked desperately, his thoughts finally going to Ora. "And the rest of the Academy, how are they?"

The doctor thought for a moment, "Last time I saw the Octoling that was brought in, I was surprised she wasn't killed on the spot… I wondered why she wasn't executed, must be she was yours. Well, she's alive at least, woke up two days ago with burns just a little less than yours. Her doctor told me that he was putting her into physical training in a day."

Jace let out an audible sigh of relief. "And the Academy?"

"Most of your injured are going to make it. However, I have no clue how many died before reaching here… I'm sorry."

And that was indeed a sobering thought. The invincible Academy squids, the ones who trained to fight this war to the end, indeed fought to the end. Jace remembered back to the fighting, the squids who melted down in the valley, and in the plaza. The Inklings who were blown to bits by the explosives, and the ones who had to be left behind by their friends. Good squids died… and good squids lived… Jace didn't know which would be worse, the living or the dying.

But at the very least…

He Was Alive.

* * *

 _One week later_

The parade was amazing, tens of thousands of squids came out to watch the brave survivors of the Academy and the police force float by, waving. Jace sat on his own float with the rest of his squad. All of them had made it through… by some godly miracle they had all made it. Not without their wounds, but they were alive.

It so happened that Philip, the always excitable boy, had to lose his leg… he sat on the side of the float waving happily to all sorts of people throwing flowers and things at them. Evan was back with them, waving to the crowd somewhat belatedly as he had no part in the fighting save for right at the end, where he had come in and helped the clean up crews take care of the rest of the Octolings. Crista was now handless, waving a stump to the crowd from the side of the float. And Jace was in a wheelchair once again, hand in hand with Ora, waving to the crowd from their two wheelchairs.

At the end of the parade, Cap'n cuttlefish was asked to step up to a podium and say a few words. He cleared his throat nervously and shuffled a few cards.

"Now, squiddos, I'm no speaker," he began, "I'm merely a captain who knew what t'was coming. A teacher of those who could save us. I'm no speaker. However, I was invited ta say a few words. Now… in the fighting, we in tha Academy lost friends out there… on tha fighting fields. We fought for our great city, and those inside of it. I personally was not on the fighting forces, I was merely tha captain. Instead let me invite my granddaughters up here."

Callie and Marie stood up, hugged the Cap'n, and turned to the crowd. "There's not much else to say," Callie told them. "We fought for all those in this city. We won't stand to see our great city destroyed, and it's our job as the Splat Academy to keep fighting these threats. We will always stand in between the enemies of Inkopolis, and the people."

Marie added on to Callie's part, "Therefore we will keep recruiting. To replace those we lost, and to seek out only the best of the best in this city. You all know where we are now, and we aren't keen on moving, but we will only accept the best out there. If you want in on the Academy, you train hard and you wait for us to contact you… and if you're what you think you are, rest assured that we will contact you. The Academy will not die out in a single fight, but we will remain as a shield to any threat against Inkopolis."

Together they finished it off, "There's only a few more people who need to speak today. First up is Ray of the Flying Brushes."

Ray got up there and wiped his nose, Jace knew that he lost all but one of his teammates, and that it must've been hard on him. "My name is Ray." He read off of a card, "I was one of the fighters at the battle for Inkopolis. Me and my team were known as the Flying Brushes… and I want to honor their deaths with a moment of silence. For them and for every other squid who died in that fight."

Everyone in the crowd bowed their heads for a moment and removed their hats in respect.

"Thank you."

Callie went back up and invited Ora to speak.

As Ora wheeled herself up, there were gasps as the crowd saw she was Octoling. She got to the microphone and lowered it to her height. "I know, I'm the enemy. I'm what we just fought. What you don't know, is that I fought with the Academy. My name… my name is Ora. I'm a resident here in Inkopolis, I've been hiding here for months now, training to fight back against the Octarians who oppressed me and my friends. They are cruel and worthless leaders, which is why I ran. I'm standing here to tell you that there are many of us who don't agree with the Octarians… and none of us are here to hurt you. In my heart, I am an Inkling."

And then it was Jace's turn… they asked him to talk about what happened at the dam, what would've happened if the Octolings made it there. Ora wheeled herself back down to his side, then kissed his cheek.

"Go tell them."

And Jace wheeled himself up there. He talked about what the fighting was like, what the enemy's targets were, and what his squad's job was in the fight. He talked about fighting on the dam, and the desperate race against time it was to make sure the dam didn't fall. As he wheeled himself back down, Jace remembered back to when he found Agent 3 on that rooftop- he no clue what would happen from saying yes, but he did anyway. And now, wheeling himself back to where Ora was waiting for him with happiness in her eyes, Jace knew what he really was now:

A hero.

The End.


	36. Epilogue

10 years later.

Jace woke up in his bed at the Splat Academy's fourth floor, which was dedicated to housing all of the squids who served in the Academy, next to Ora. Ora awoke soon after and smiled at him. They got up and got ready for a day of teaching, placing their wedding bands on their fingers with smiles.

Ora walked off to the weapon's range, ready to teach her class of squids next to the sniper range, where Pavyl was teaching his chargers. Jace's class was merely Master Tactics class.

The Academy had been expanded since the war for Inkopolis. Seven floors, not including a roof, were now on the Academy, and a full staff was employed to keep it up and running, and to teach the hundreds of squids who were being trained. Agent 3 was off somewhere at the surface, recruiting more for the programs, and Callie was running the Academy without Marie at her side (Marie was getting close to having her first baby, Agent 3 should be on his way back in order to see that happen.)

"Hey, Ivy." Jace told the black operation's teacher before walking into his classroom, "No more sneaking hot sauce into my sandwiches. If you do that again, I'll stop making lunch for the Academy's staff every saturday..."

Ivy smiled, "Fine, can't have everyone complaining that there's no more five star taco bar. Speaking of which, why doesn't Evan help you out with that anymore, he used to do that with you."

"Evan is too busy at his restaurant, I've heard that they hosted a luncheon for all the bands in Inkopolis there not too long ago, so he'd be too busy to come help us. I think he'll be here next week though, he doesn't like missing out on saturday tacos."

Ivy shrugged, then walked into her class. Jace walked into his.

"Rose, Delfinia, would you mind powering up the holographic maps?"

His two assistants complied, activating the high tech holo-deck of Sheldon's own design. A holographic map of Blackbelly skatepark appeared all around Jace, miniaturized for convenience. "Load up situation ten, please."

Four Squids with squiffers appeared at key points all over the map.

When his students walked in, Jace was sitting at his desk, reading over paperwork. "Please solve this problem as bellwork, I'll be with you shortly."

The students all looked up to him, Jace knew that, he was part of the great battle. It was said that he was the reason that the Inklings won, but Jace knew better, it was all of them. The Academy was a team, both then and now. The only difference now being that the team had expanded to become a true Academy, with hundreds of students working and training to be the best fighters on the planet.

Yes, the Octarians had attacked, multiple times even... but every time they had held them back. The Academy was thriving.

Jace shuffled through a couple more papers on his desk, then began discussing solutions with his students. Everything was at peace in the world. Absolutely everything.


	37. Author's note: To all who supported this

Well then… here's the final part of splaticide. The final celebration. There's a reason I took so long for this: and that's because I was undergoing a rigorous editing session for chapter One of my real book, which I will be naming Switch.

Switch is a full length novel, and as such it will take a long time to make. However, I have everything I need, and I'm focusing on it.

But that isn't why you're here. This is the final celebration, this is when I take the time to thank each and every one of you who supported Splaticide.

Let the celebration begin! To all of you who followed:

Boy Jav

Captain Toon

CastilloBlanca

Darkford

Dragonspirit996

FlamestarLeaderofFireclan

Golderik

ILikePoop69

Jusmove

Kira Killer Kitsune

KitkattAttack

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Lopezdusk

Luigichimp

Memaiva

Octoling

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Quagsire12

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ShinyPikaFilms

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Squidling '02

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namelesspenname

nicopop

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sportster207

zIvyz

You all kept up with this story and you showed me that it was interesting. I thank you for following this story, and I hope that it was all that you wanted it to be.

To all who favorited the story:

Alewar Warinot

Boy Jav

Captain Toon

CastilloBlanca

Darkford

FlamestarLeaderofFireclan

Golderik

ILikePoop69

Jusmove

Kira Killer Kitsune

Lopezdusk

Memaiva

MrMarioluigi1000

Octoling

Punished 'Dread' Angel

Shadow of the Dragons

ShinyPikaFilms

SirCrackLaptops

Squidling '02

Stuart456

TwiliRupee

deepcauldron

jajuancollins9

litosns

pichufan101

qwertzuiopas701

robloxian2456

You told me that what I was writing you actually enjoyed. I was surprised to see this story gain the popularity that it did, and you're the reasons for it. Thank you all for your support of Splaticide.

And to those who commented, though I'm unable to name all of you as many were guests and it would be very time consuming to run through all the comments and find all the names (Most of which were already on the favorited and followed lines), I want to thank you all for making this story what it was. Your comments led this story and made it better with every comment you gave and every opinion you told me. You all were a big reason why I've gotten better as a writer. Thank you all for your support of Splaticide.

I especially want to thank zIvyz, who inspired Ivy and her team of Inklings and helped to create this story. I want to thank all those in the Splatoon writer's skype group, who were equally helpful, and all those who talked to me using the messaging system to talk about this book. I consider all of you as friends.

And, as I said initially, the reason I hadn't uploaded this for a while is because I was editing the first chapter of my book for the longest time. I believe that this is the 20th or 21st time I've printed this chapter out and physically made edits. But there's a reason why I took so much time to edit this chapter before putting this celebration out, and that's because I want to give everybody who read this story a sneak peek at my book "Switch". I've buckled down to make this, and I hopefully will have the book published within the next year. If you ever see Switch on bookshelves, you know who made it. And with that, please enjoy the first chapter of Switch.

* * *

Chapter 1: Viscos and Z-Bikes

If somebody from the old Earth-days visited the planet Viscos, they would use one word to describe it: polluted. Even from orbit it was obvious that this world would burn your lungs; gray and black smoke covered all. On the surface, it was even worse, visibility averaged out to just over sixty feet because of the smog produced by the tens of millions of factories. When walking outside, many claimed they could feel the smog weighting down on them due to its thickness. If one wanted to visit Viscos, they would need a full face mask with an air filter to walk across the street, and one of the main fashion industries on Viscos revolved around these air filters.

The pollution problem made another thing difficult, transportation. The highly limited visibility made any personal transportation too risky, so the people chose to rely on the safer (albeit slower) public transportation system. The public transport was a very rough, older model. No public systems were rich enough to pay for the newest plasma driven vehicles coming out of Elieth, the most technologically advanced planet in the United Planets of Humanity.

Most people chose to walk to work anyway.

But, in the cities of Viscos, streets would often be walled off and covered with a magnetic layer of pads to make way for true speed: The Z-bike races.

For Jace Pearson, it was one such race day.

Jace woke up to the dim, smoky light of the morning sun shining through the fumes and into his room. It was nearly impossible to get a truly sunny day, the pollution made sure of that.

It was a non-school day, and the first race day of the Z-bike season. He threw off his bed sheets and hurriedly got dressed, excited to put on his racing outfit once again. Most Z-bike racers chose to wear a balance between protection and weight, and the standard outfit consisted of a girdle, tightly fitting pants, boots, gloves, and a colored racer's jacket with the team name and racer number stenciled on the back and the team logo in the front. Jace's own jacket was striped blue and orange with their name "Light Speed" and the number 7 emblazoned on the back. On the front was a picture of a star on a bike, and on the sleeves were the names of all the sponsors that supported Light Speed.

As Jace slid it on, he was glad the outfit still fit him, he'd grown almost three inches since turning seventeen two months ago.

Jace walked over to his window, opened it, then slammed it shut a moment later. He staggered away from the window, eyes streaming tears, coughing as he tried to expel the polluted air that had filled his lungs.

"Right, right. Need the air filter." Jace mumbled through his gas-induced coughing fit. He found the mask on his desk, next to his computer-pad, and put it on so that it covered his whole face. The window went open again, and this time his lungs weren't filled with the burning pollution; Jace was able to look out over the Viscosian city of Devnei.

As with most cities on Viscos, Devnei was covered in hundreds of skyscrapers and factories. The skyscrapers rose thousands of feet in the air, disappearing into the clouds of smog. In comparison to the pictures Jace had seen of Old-days Earth and the other modern planets, Devnei was quite dreary. There was no plant or animal life anywhere on Viscos, and there was a nearly continuous downtown area with all the formulaic buildings.

There were a couple of mountains on Viscos, rising up over the skyscrapers. These mountains were dotted with mines that could dig up tons of minerals a day to be shipped out to the factories and then to the other planets in exchange for food and water. And every couple hundred miles, there were small lakes whose surfaces reflected only smog.

It may have been a boring and repetitious setting for the races, but it worked out in the racer's favor as new courses could be sectioned off every season. There was never a course the racers had already driven on in the previous seasons, which made for very interesting races.

There was a knock on Jace's door and Jace closed his window and pressed a button right next to it. Air filtration systems sucked the pollution out of the room and filled the space with clean air.

"Come in." Jace called out after he had taken off his mask. The door opened and Jace's mom walked in. She was short, almost a head smaller than Jace, but in her mind she was eight feet taller than everybody.

"Hey, Mom." Jace said as she walked up and hugged him. "So was Dad able to get tickets to my race this time?"

Mr. Pearson was on the city council, and as such he was often able to get tickets to see whatever race Light Speed was competing in, but Jace's mom was already shaking her head in disappointment.

"He's been really busy lately, Jace, there's been a lot of people vying for his attention on the board meetings. I'm sorry, we can't be there today, but know for sure that I'll be watching on the V.R.V."

The Virtual Reality Vision (Or V.R.V.) acted like a viewing system for those not able to be there in person. It projected an image onto the insides of goggles and simulated the sights and sounds of the area. Most families didn't have a full haptic response suit and helmet to go with the V.R.V., but Jace's father was able to get one from Elieth. It was mostly used by Jace to study the other racing teams so he knew what they did and when they did it, but his mom often used it to just watch a couple of sitcoms and cooking shows.

Jace nodded, "Well, I've got to get going so we can set up."

"Stay safe, and don't forget your vitamins."

"Don't worry." And Jace left, grabbing the sunlight vitamin supplement as he did so.

* * *

The hallway of the apartment complex Jace lived in was completely empty save for a teenage girl and her two male friends. Jace recognized them immediately. They were his Z-bike racing team: Celine Ravien, Edward Dessy, and Nick Ranier. They waved to Jace as he left his apartment.

"Hey Jace, hurry it up! We don't want to be late." Celine called out to him. "Did you remember the lock keys? Your helmet? Your air filter?"

Jace lifted his index finger as he started to respond, lowered it, and rushed back inside his apartment to hastily grab the items.

He took a quick look around his room. A desk sat by his bed, which lay underneath a series of posters of some of Jace's favorite teams of Z-bike racers. On his desk was a computer pad (a compact keyboard that had a holographic screen), that was currently closed to conserve battery life, even though he had it plugged into the wall outlet. The wall to the left of his bed (opposite to the door) was a window leading to the outside world. The windowsill had a couple of buttons on it for different controls the room could do, nothing fancy, but very practical. Jace found the helmet on his dresser under his mirror. For a moment he looked at his reflection.

Jace was around six feet, two inches, with a light build. He had a runner's build, which he had inherited from his father. He really didn't look that strong. Ruffled red hair from sleeping lay atop his head, and Jace smoothed it down quickly. As he did so, his arm revealed an old scar leading from his elbow to his forearm, he got that one in a Z-bike racing accident years ago when a piece of shrapnel from a bike crashing near him had ripped through his arm. To finish off the look, along the bridge of his nose was a couple of freckles.

He wasn't very intimidating to say the least.

When he reemerged in silence, Celine had a big 'I knew it' smile on her face. Jace rushed over to his friends and Celine opened her mouth to say something, but Jace interrupted her before she could get any words out.

"I know, Celine. Thank you for always being there to remind me, I don't know where I'd be without you." Nearly every day he forgot something and heard the exact same phrase from Celine. Jace looked at Nick and Edward, who were snickering. "Thanks for the support, guys." He told them sarcastically.

This was his team; this was Light Speed. Celine was a Caucasian female who'd known Jace since they were both little kids. She was a petite girl, but stronger than she looked. Her mother always wanted a beautiful daughter, and Celine was exactly what she was hoping for: piercing green eyes, black shoulder-length hair; Celine could have been a model. But her dad had been in charge of a Z-bike team before his untimely death, and gave her his rebellious streak. Instead of the skirts and dresses Mrs. Ravien wanted, Celine wore jeans and tanktops, brightly colored socks, and her father's leather glove, which was on constantly.

Nick Ranier, the mechanic. He was the most heavyset person in the whole team, being taller and thicker at 6'2" and 197 pounds. He's the one who would shatter Earth-day stereotypes the group had learned about, as his Earth-days heritage was from Asia. He was the oldest on the team, at age 19, in comparison to 17-year-old Jace and Celine, and 16-year-old Eddie, and had moved in with Eddie as a foster child.

And then there was Edward, everybody called him Eddie, was the small back up racer for Light Speed. In history class they'd learned his heritage came from the Earth-days people group living in Central America. Eddie was excruciatingly shy; he wouldn't talk if there was any more than four people around him. Nick and Eddie were foster brothers, and Nick needed Eddie to fix the bike once last year… ever since then Nick had been teaching Eddie on how to take care of the bike.

They'd all met in high school and joined up to become Light Speed.

The four friends walked over to the elevator system and took it down to the ground floor. There was a door to the right hand side of the welcome desk in the lobby that led to a small garage specifically used for Light Speed's Z-bike.

The apartment building was very proud of its resident team, having been a sponsor of them for years, it advertised itself using their popularity among the younger generation. It also gave Light Speed a personal garage and helped supply the team with part of the energy required to power the bike. As Light Speed walked by the welcome desk, the clerk sitting there wished them luck and told them that the complex was betting on a win today.

Jace fit his key into the garage lock and opened the door to reveal their pride and joy Z-bike.

The Z-bike itself was striped blue and orange like Jace's racing jacket, with the logo having been painstakingly stenciled onto both sides. It used eight high power magnet pads on the underside of the bike to simulate anti-gravity and accelerate to a top speed of around two hundred miles per hour, no wheels or conventional plasma engines needed. Most bikes could go faster than this, but were regulated by the Viscos committee for Z-bike Racing, which in turn was under the Interplanetary committee.

It was sleek and shiny; a black leather saddle style seat for the racer, who would lean all the way forwards to make themselves a smaller figure in the wind. A thin glass visor with a projected Heads Up Display came over where a racer's head would be, with speed and other controls lining the edge of the bike. The handles for turning the bike were also located with those controls, creating a natural ergonomic environment for the racer.

The bike was locked to the ground by a magnet, rendering it almost impossible to steal. Nick inserted his key to the magnet pad and reversed the magnetic field; then he turned on the bike's own magnet pads from where they were charging, letting the bike rise slowly into the air.

Eddie gave the bike a quick check up, and determined it to be in working order. But just in case, Nick had Jace get on the bike to test it.

As soon as Jace sat down, the bike wobbled precariously and dropped a foot downwards. Jace jumped off of it before the bike hit the ground and risked damage to the fragile magnet pads. Nick frowned, "Eddie," he said to his foster brother, "Did you check under the pads?"

"I don't think so."

"Well," and Nick crouched down and dragged a finger across the magnets. There was a sticky residue on them from Jace's last season finisher (third place in the Viscos World's) "There, that's the problem. Can you grab a couple of washcloths, Eddie?"

The two foster brothers went to work on the underside of the bike, and after ten minutes, the pads were clean. The cloths, on the other hand, Nick and Edward rid of the washcloths on their way out. They'd use some of the sponsorship money to buy a few more next time Nick went out to the hardware store.

Now that the bike was ready, the four friends went to the corners of the bike and put on their air filters. Celine hit a button on the wall and a garage door rose upwards into the ceiling. They picked up the bike and walked it out onto the street. They would have to walk it all the way to the course, magnets only worked with other magnets.

While they walked, they didn't really talk, they all could feel the pre-race jitters getting to them. No matter how many times they raced, there was always the point where the jitters got to them.

The streets were crowded with hundreds of people walking to the race starting line, but most made room for Light Speed as it was obvious they were racers. Anybody could see the logo, and Jace felt too many people pat his back while he walked.

The starting line was located on the Eastern side of Devnei, only a mile away from the city boundaries. Filtered tents were set up to the area right of the starting and finishing lines.

Light Speed was only one of two teenager run teams in Devnei that could race in the planetary league. The other team, The Grav Runners, fashioned themselves into their rivals, and most of the teenagers on Devnei were fans of one or the other team. It may be a healthy competition for the most part, but that didn't stop Jace from sighing silently as The Grav Runners' tent was right next to theirs.

The Grav Runners' team consisted of a brother-sister duo: Spencer and Carya Jackson. Spencer wasn't a bad guy to be around, with his green dyed hair and laid back attitude, Jace enjoyed being in the same classes at their high school. But Carya, the younger sister at age fifteen, was the worst, most self-righteous brat Jace had ever the displeasure to meet. She was the driver of the bike only because she was the smallest and lightest racer in Devnei; she was barely 5'3" when wearing heels and couldn't tip a scale over 100 when soaking wet.

Light Speed set their bike carefully down so as not to damage the magnets and walked into their tent, taking off their masks as they did so.

"So I think somebody will be by soon with a map to the course." Celine told the group. The races were always kept secret until the day of the race so that no team had an advantage. That didn't stop some teams from trying to figure out the course before everyone else.

Before the person came by, Light Speed had just a couple of things left to do. Jace got on his helmet and gloves while Celine, Eddie, and Nick put on special air filters with radios on the inside. Jace activated the built in radio in his helmet and tapped the microphone.

"Hey guys, are you able to hear me?" He said.

"Loud and clear, Jace." He heard Celine's voice say in his helmet. Eddie and Nick sounded off soon after as they were normally a little slow in turning on their microphones. A few minutes later, a race official came by and handed Celine a race map. She spread out the map on the ground and they all sat down to study it.

According to the map, the race would start off with a quick straightway followed by several back and forth turns that led to the city limits. Once at the limits, the track went for a mile along them before turning back inside and making a gradual right hand turn to a straightway leading to the finish line. There would be five laps through the course, nice and simple.

As they studied the map, the race official walked by their tent a second time holding a sign that read "10 minute warning". Jace saw this and flashed the man a thumbs up to tell him they knew.

"So I'm thinking that I should keep my speed to a minimum in this area," Jace said, pointing at the back and forth turns, "The magnets would slide too much at top speed for those angles, but for the most part I think I can go full blast for the race."

Celine nodded and pointed to a spot some 300 yards before the turns, "Just make sure to slow down here, otherwise you won't have time to do so any later. And don't you dare slam the brakes so close to the turns, if you die; I will kill you."

Jace smiled and nodded, "Don't worry about it. I've got this." He walked over to the bike and started it up.

The magnets on the bottom of the bike fired up and the Z-bike floated to waist height. Jace got on and the bike compensated for his weight. His hands went automatically to the controls and the bike responded to the inputs beautifully, becoming instantly responsive. Nick was a great mechanic, the Z-bike felt perfect as Jace slowly floated it out to the track and got his bike into its place on the starting line.

When the other teams noticed that Jace was ready, they hurried to finish their preparations, it was humiliating that the teenage team was ready first.

There were eight teams on the line when everybody was ready. In order from left to right the teams were: Z-Trio, The Grav Runners, Light Speed, Topside Cougars, CrossRoad Flyers, HLS LTD., and Blast Racing.

Jace took a look at the crowd, the stands were packed full of cheering people. Jace saw several Light Speed banners in the crowd being waved by teens. He turned his head back forwards into the visor and flipped a switch on the side to activate the Heads Up Display (or HUD) on the visor. A detailed analysis of the Z-bike's speed, damage, heat, power charge, and other systems showed up on the visor.

"Okay, guys, keep me updated." Jace told his team through his microphone.

In front of the bikes, the mayor of Devnei walked out with an air filter connected to a couple of speakers, behind him walked a girl.

"Thank you all for coming out here today." The mayor's voice, amplified through the speakers, said to the massive crowd of Viscosians. It was so loud, Jace could hear him through his helmet.

"As the mayor of Devnei, I was asked to introduce the teams of this race for their first race of the season." This was greeted with cheers, the mayor was a very likeable, plump man with a pleasant smile and impeccable taste for good fashion. "However," the cheers stopped, "I personally do not follow any Z-bike racing teams; it gets quite difficult to follow sports in my job. It would be a disservice to our highly skilled teams if somebody with so little knowledge of the sport was to introduce them. Thankfully, I know somebody who has not only been following these teams since she was the young age of eight, but is more than willing to say a few words despite a busy high school schedule. I would like to introduce my daughter, Azure."

The girl, who Jace assumed to be Azure, had a pale blue air filter and a jacket of the same color. The jacket was unzipped and she had a contrasting white shirt on underneath to give off a 'cool and collected' look. As he took a look at her, Jace saw Azure looking right at him. She noticed his eyes and moved her jacket over a bit to reveal a Light Speed logo over her breast pocket. Jace grinned and saw her wink at him.

"Hi everybody, like my dad said, I'm here to introduce our teams today." She had a confident voice, and like her dad, was very personable. "First up we have Z-Trio, one of the oldest teams on Viscos."

Applause.

"Next up we have The Grav Runners, one of only two teenager teams in Devnei."

More applause from the stands and boos from the fans of Light Speed.

"Our other teenage team, Light Speed!" A push fight broke out between a couple fans of the two rival teams before security got between them and made them leave.

"Give it up for Topside, a visiting team from Ras, our neighbor city."

She went through the teams but none had the same reaction as the two teenage favorites. Once Azure finished up she looked right at Jace again, "Now, I hope everybody stays safe out there and races hard. Thanks again for coming out to support our teams."

Azure and her father left for the stands and a new voice came on the speakers when they were safely seated.

"Racers ready?"

The drivers all raised their hands in confirmation.

"3…2…1…"

Jace gripped the controls tightly.

"GO!"

And they were off. Every driver jammed their accelerator down and took off. Jace felt the G-forces threaten to rip him off his bike as he went from 0 to over 100 mph in less than a couple of seconds, but Jace stayed on his bike. The magnets underneath him were launching him towards top speed.

Nick's engineering was giving Jace an early lead as Jace felt his bike gain ground on the other racers, putting him almost a half bike ahead from the other racers as they lobbied for positions. In his helmet, Celine's voice sounded off, "Jace, start slowing down. You've got around three hundred yards before the turns. Take the turns slow in, fast out, try and pick up inside on your way out."

An adjustment made, and Jace started slowing down. He could feel the other racers behind him do the same, nobody wanted to take risks so early in the race.

The first right turn approached so quickly, Jace almost didn't see it, but he swung the bike into the turn. The Z-bike slid for a moment, then blasted forward again. It slid again as Jace turned sharply again into the next turn.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Jace mumbled as he took the quickest of glances behind himself and saw HLS LTD. coming up to him on the right side. Jace gave his bike an unsafe burst of speed to make sure he gained the inside of a right hand turn. The Z-bike's traction was lost and the bike slid violently towards the wall, careening sideways.

"Jace, you idiot!" Celine screamed in his helmet. Jace grimaced and put his leg out to push against the wall without losing much speed. His leg screamed in protest at what Jace just forced himself to do, he could feel his every sinew straining under the pressure, and every nerve telling him to stop, but Jace pushed back against his feelings and kept going.

He didn't lose much speed, but in the moment he lost the inside of the turn, HLS and The Grav Runners passed him, and Z-Trio drew equal.

Z-Trio's racer opened up on the acceleration a little too much on the last turn, though, and Jace slipped by on the inside and blasted into the straightway at top speed.

The Grav Runners and HLS were having their own personal battle up ahead of Jace. Carya was trying to force HLS's racer into the wall of the course. HLS was in some serious trouble; Carya had the advantage on him and the wall was getting closer every second.

HLS, to the racer's credit, wasn't giving Carya any ground in front of him, but that soon was forced to change. His bike was an inch from the wall when he was finally smart enough to hit his brakes and escape Carya. Jace sped by him as he tried to regain his lost momentum.

"Jace, the right hand turn is coming up, open up and get behind Carya." Celine told Jace, "Does your HUD say anything about when you pushed off the wall?"

"Just a tiny bit of strain on the turning controls." Jace said, accelerating his bike as he did so. "It shouldn't hurt us too much."

"Just don't do that again."

He advanced on Carya's back slowly, Spencer Jackson's work on his bike was just as good as Nick's. It was a slow gain, but it was still a gain on them.

As they came out of the turn, Jace was only one bike length behind Carya. They came out of the turn onto the straightway and were greeted with a couple thousand screaming viewers. They were going too fast to see if the spectators were cheering or booing, but Jace caught Celine's eyes as he passed their tent.

"Stay behind her for now, Jace," Celine said to him, "Make a move on the last turn."

Jace only grunted in response, too focused on timing his brake perfectly so as not to lose any time or momentum. There came the turn, Jace could only tell from having studied the map so thoroughly and a warning from Celine; there was too much pollution to see that far.

They swung into the turns; slow in, fast out, using momentum to try and keep their positions. According to a warning from Celine, the other racers were falling away from them, too busy fighting over third place to challenge first or second.

And the two bikes rushed into the straightway. Jace found himself in an awkward position with the tip of his bike to the right side of the back of Carya's. It was an awkward advantage, giving Jace the inside on Carya, and she did not like that one bit.

In the slightest of motions that looked almost accidental, Carya's bike barely touched Jace's.

Jace's bike turned away from the bump, magnified by the slippery nature of the magnets and hit the wall.

"Holy crap!" Jace yelled as his bike scraped against the wall, drawing sparks. Then the balanced went. Jace felt himself fly off the ground as the bike flipped with him still on it.

 _No no no no!_ Jace thought. _Carya you little…_

The ground rose up too quickly and Jace didn't have any time to try and prepare himself, all he could do is hold on and pray he survived the flipping and writhing beast of metal he was on. There were no longer any concepts of up or down, merely ground and not ground, death and not death. Jace could hear Celine screaming.

The clear glass visor shattered around Jace's head in a rainbow of fragments and something rocked Jace's helmet backwards, sending lances of pain through his skull and snapping his head back. His neck twisted and Jace felt his spine start screaming at him too. It was like the devil himself had gone up to the surface of the world to torture him.

 _Gah!_ In his mind he was screaming and Jace felt his mouth open in a scream, but he couldn't even tell if he was screaming in the real world, all he knew was pain.

The bike flipped again and again, throwing Jace around like a ragdoll. Jace took a second hit to the skull and his vision dimmed slightly, his body went limp around him.

It felt like the hell around him would never stop, but the bike and Jace finally slid to a stop next to the wall. Jace tried to look up, but lacked any energy to lift his head enough to see anything over the bike. Jace felt a sticky substance drip down on his head and there was a metallic taste in his mouth. Vision blurred and went in and out of focus only to turn to black for what felt like hours. In one of the moments his vision was actually working, Jace saw four men dressed in white running towards his bike from where his head was stuck.

Jace tried to lift his arm, but only succeeded in driving new points of pain into him. The arm refused to obey its owner's commands.

"A little help, guys?" Jace tried to say, but his voice wasn't working. He tried again a little louder and this time heard a dry croak. It sounded like his voice was a machine that had been rusted over. As Jace's vision blacked out again, he noticed a ringing in his ears clearing and Celine saying something in his helmet radio.

The bike was lifted up and Jace felt himself be carried away as his vision sunk into the inky depths of unconsciousness.

* * *

"You are one extremely lucky kid." The doctor told Jace. He was on a hospital bed with bandages everywhere. His head was wrapped up tightly and other bandages were all over his body, making Jace look like he was half mummy.

"I know." Jace told him, "How many times did the bike flip over again?"

"Thirteen, all the time you were in danger of hitting your head. When your visor shattered, one of the shards cut into your head, and another inch deeper… that shard would have impaled your brain. Your skull stopped it, but barely. You are the luckiest kid I have ever seen." The doctor repeated.

Jace nodded and tried to relax. "The bike was destroyed, wasn't it?"

The doctor nodded, "They told me that it was utterly obliterated. There's no more races for it. But at least you are okay."

From the bed, Jace laughed until it started hurting, and even then he wheezed. "I'm okay for now, but Celine is going to kill me, I trashed our bike."


	38. Thanksgiving Special!

Jace looked down at the calander in his room.

"Hey, Ora, I completely forgot but it seems to be Thanksgiving."

The Octoling looked at her husband in shock, "You forgot Thanksgiving?" She put a hand on his and smiled, "You forget everything important."

Jace knew that she thought it was cute, but it didn't disguise her annoyance at his chronic forgetfulness. "I forget everything, except when it involves you, y'know. Since it's Thanksgiving, weren't we going to do the annual Academy Staff Thanksgiving dinner?"

"Yep, and I bet you forgot that you offered to help Evan cook it."

"Evan is coming over?"

Jace looked at the clock on his bedside dresser, it was 9:00 in the morning. "Shouldn't he already be here?" Jace heard Ora sigh and the bed shook a little as she flopped over.

"He's been here since last night. You'd better get dressed and help him out, he'd be in the kitchen already."

Jace hustled out of bed and out of his pajamas, getting his clothes on as fast as possible. Ora watched him the whole time, giggling slightly as he struggled with putting on a button-up shirt.

* * *

On the first floor of the Academy, there was the mouth-watering smell of food in the air already, Evan was busy ordering around his kitchen staff.

"Come on already, we don't have all day. Put the turkey in the oven already and get it slowly cooking."

Jace knocked on the doorframe as he walked in and Evan turned to greet his friend, "Jace! Oh man, long time no see. Holy smokes..." He paused, "You're growing a beard." Evan pointed out the scruff that Jace had been trying to grow out.

"Ha, only trying, my friend." Jace clapped Evan on the shoulder with one hand and shook his hand with the other. "Do you want any help out down here? I'll do whatever you need."

"What I need? Hmmmm... I think I'll need some more stomachs to feed, to be honest. With the amount of food I'm cooking, it'll be too much for the teachers and staff to eat on their own, why don't you invite the students and their family's?"

Jace nodded and left the kitchen for his office.

There was an emergency message system in place to reach the students/fighters should the Octarians ever attack. The transmitter for it was located in Jace's own office. It was a simple type-message, so Jace put in the words 'Please join us for Thanksgiving feast hosted by Evan. More than enough food for everybody and their families.'

He knew that once he put in the message, most of the squids will freak out, thinking that the Octarians would be attacking. Hopefully most of the students would show up, Jace knew that if Evan said he could feed the hundreds of students, their families, and the staff, then he would most definitely be able to feed all of them.

Once back in the Kitchen, Evan had Jace help out with cutting vegetables into small slices.

"You planned out that you'll have this much food for everybody, didn't you?"

Evan laughed. He'd thickened out a bit in recent years, and he had a booming laugh that echoed through his whole belly. "The whole way. We won't let the students go hungry today, they'd be jealous that they missed out."

* * *

The staff and students began arriving around 1:00, showing up and sitting wherever they wanted. The whole bottom floor was filled with hundreds of squids sitting down in the classrooms, the cafeteria, the lobby, the hallways, anywhere they could.

The families of the students were especially intrigued, no squids other than students and staff were allowed inside of the Academy until the students either graduated and moved into the Academy's fighting units (the graduation took place inside the academy), or the student died in action and the family met with Callie to talk about how it happened.

Some of the squids put on a show, a play, in the battle-parkour classroom. They used all the different platforms and other obstacles as best they could, spinning a funny tale about a squid who couldn't tie his shoes and kept trying to follow his friends. The highlights of that play included a touching moment where one of the first year squids tried doing a parkour roll out of a fall and accidentally rolled into a girl (who happened to be the love interest of the play).

Too many students to count came up to Jace today, saying that they were thankful that he was their teacher, and that he had saved them so many times.

Ora joined Jace to watch the play, but got dragged off by a student shortly after who wanted his parents to meet her.

Evan came on the intercom "Everybody, the food is ready! Come on in to the cafeteria and dish up!" which prompted a mad dash among the students to be the first in line to get food, nobody was going to miss out on Evan's five star cooking.

It was joyous and merry, filled with laughter and stories. Stories of laughter and friendship, stories of fighting, stories of teaching, it didn't matter what stories so long as there was one to tell. Callie even got in the mix, telling her story of when she and Marie first fought Jace and Celine, and their first excursion into Octarian territory to recover Ora's friends. She had the largest crowd around her, as her stories were brilliantly told.

Jace smiled as he watched everything from his seat. One of the students had asked Jace for his story of when they had first saved the city, which was a story that he was always being asked to tell, but never tired of telling, and he was sitting back to relax and get a drink.

"You know what, Ora?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm thankful that Celine and I tried to prank Agent 3. I'm thankful that you got knocked out after you attacked me. I'm thankful that we carried Rose and Delfinia back up to the surface. I'm thankful for our friends, and I'm thankful that no matter what, we've made it through every single attack. I'm thankful that we have days like these, and I'm thankful that we will always have days like these."

"Happy Thanksgiving, Jace."

"Happy Thanksgiving, Ora."

 _Author's note:_ Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. I figured that I might as well post this chapter today just to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for all of you and all that you've done. I'm thankful that many of you are writers, ready to shape the way we read and write in the future, and I'm thankful for all my friends on . Happy Thanksgiving, from Dlahm. And I don't remember if I said this or not, but thank you to all who made the fan art, it warms my heart to see it. I think my favorite one is from Kit-The-Wandering and SirCrackLaptops, and I'll be using it as the cover art for this story. Another thing, I want to make some small specials for this, even though the real story is over. Christmas, thanksgiving, and all that, maybe some short stories... but Idk if anybody would be interested in reading them. If you would be interested in reading some holiday specials or short stories involving Jace and Crew, please say so, cause even if I only get one person saying yes, I'll do it.


	39. Fluffy Christmas Special

"BACK IT UP! GET OUT OF THEIR RANGE!" Jace yelled at the Academy fighters, shooting as he did so at the advancing Octarian forces. "GET MOVING!"

With the added force of his words, Jace's fighters slowly started to retreat, falling back past the rock formations lining the Octo valley. Octarians had been moving a small unit up the valley for days and Jace's units were chosen to drive them back. It should've been a relatively simple trap and kill operation, but the Octarians had support from some artillery that was hidden behind their lines.

When Jace had set his trap with his units, it wasn't long at all until they had a nasty surprise: flying Octarian ink bombs.

Their aim was just barely off, thankfully, so instead of melting the majority of the Academy fighters it only injured a few. Their friends carried them back when Jace yelled for the retreat.

"What to do. What to do." Jace mumbled as he shot at the Octarians, a blast of ink slammed the ground nearby to him and he stumbled to one knee, cutting it on the sharpened ground. A glance backwards at his troops showed that they were almost all the way under cover. The Octarian forces were too close for comfort, so Jace filled an ink bomb and tossed it at his feet. Switching into his squid form, Jace swam to the nearest cover, a stone pillar.

"RETURN FIRE!"

And the squids launched their counterattack against the Octarians. The Octarians at the front, foolish ones itching for battle who believed themselves invincible, fell with wounds too great to overcome. They got in the way of their compatriots who were advancing as well, making some Octarians trip and fall into the Inkling ink and die. Jace himself took down five of the twenty front line Octarians himself, with five well placed .52 shots.

Jace spun from the pillar, firing as he went, and dove under the fire coming from both sides. Rolling out of the dive he placed two shots between the eyes of two different Octarians and ran for his defensive lines.

"Cover his run!" Jace heard one of his Unit captains say to his men. Their Splatling gunners proceeded to lay into the enemy with everything they had, wasting all their ink to let Jace get back to their ranks.

From their cover, the Octarians were forced to move their artillery up, and by the time they had the strength to do so most of their force had been removed from existence. The artillery workers ran from their guns, abandoning their posts and any of the force who was still alive.

Jace turned his attention from the running Octarians to his men, "casualties?" He asked his captains.

"Jamie and Redd," one of them said, "They died from wounds after the artillery strike. Other than that, there was no casualties."

"It's just like these Octarians to attack us on Christmas Eve." Jace groaned to his captains, "Take our guys back to the Academy, I'll meet you there."

While his units headed back to the Academy, Jace stayed at his current position for a bit... just watching. If the Octarians attacked again, he wanted to be ready. Thankfully, the Octarians seemed to have no other attacks planned, and Jace was able to head back up to the Academy after an hour.

The Academy was decorated like nothing Jace had ever seen before. The outside was red and green, striped like a candy cane, and lights hung from every which way. Off of ink cannons hung mistletoe, and over the door was the largest wreath anybody had ever seen. The inside was equally lit, warm and happy, in the foyer was a tree rivaling that of the massive tree put in Inkopolis' plaza every year.

Ora was waiting for him there under the tree.

"Where have you been? You didn't come back with the other units, I thought you'd been killed!" She ran over to Jace, hugged him, slapped him, then hugged him again.

Jace chuckled, "Sorry." He put his .52 Gal down and hugged Ora back.

"You idiot. You scared me sick... to think that you didn't come back from a simple mission like this... and on Christmas Eve too."

"I said I'm sorry."

She bonked him over his head, "If I didn't love you, I'd smack you senseless."

"Love you too."

Christmas at the Academy was always a time to enjoy. All the teachers and instructors would spend the night at the Academy having a party til the following morning.

Callie and Marie led Karaoke for the whole group, culminating in them singing their favorite songs. There was a darts competition between the snipers. And they also decided to play a game of "pin the tail on the Octarian" using DJ Octavio and his adorable little bubble. Octavio was threatening them the whole time they did so, saying that if he ever got free the winner would die first.

Then Agent 3 shook his bubble and left him staggering around like he was drunk.

There were massive Christmas Crackers that exploded in all colors of ink, leaving the loser drenched in any shade of the rainbow.

And Evan stopped by with food... instantly becoming the most popular person in the whole Academy.

At around midnight, everybody came together for a full contact game of musical chairs. Some of the squids put helmets on just in case... past experiences made it necessary. The last round was between Cap'n Cuttlefish and one of the parkour teachers. The Parkour teacher ran for the chair as the music stopped, but Cuttlefish swooped in and took the chair out from under his butt, leaving the parkour teacher flat on his back and the crowd in tears.

Agent 3 walked up to the teacher and put a red reindeer nose on him as he lay on the ground.

They sang Christmas songs together.

They ate.

And after all that came the best part. The gift exchange.

Under the tree in the foyer was all the gifts the staff had gotten for each other. Some of the teachers put on santa hats and began handing out gifts to their recipients, making their way slowly through the massive pile under the tree.

Once all the gifts were handed out, Agent 3 decided to speak up.

"Before we open these gifts, I have a gift to give to somebody who's very special to us all." He snorted, obviously trying to contain laughter, "Hey, Octavio. I got you a snowglobe!"

Octavio was still staggering inside of his little bubble like he was drunk, but upon hearing 3's words, he glowed bright red with hatred. "3, when I get out I'll tape you inside of a snowglobe! You slimy little no-good underground piece of-"

That was when somebody rolled Octavio's bubble away from the party, back to the office in which it belonged.

After gifts came white elephant. Where Jace stole a drone from Ivy, who'd stolen the drone previously from Azure, and now both of them hated Jace for stealing it the second time and locking it. Ivy had a hand on her Luna Blaster and Azure had a hand on her Splattershot... Jace took the time to take cover and let the game go on before the two girls painted him up like a Christmas tree.

And speaking of the tree, when everything was said and done... they opened fire on it, turning the tree into an explosion of multi-colored ink.

"Merry Christmas, Academy" Cuttlefish told everybody as they went to bed that night.

AN: Just a little fluffy Christmas special. Nothing fancy, nothing big... just some fluff and fun. Merry Christmas, Everybody.


End file.
